Twelve Hours, Twelve Days, Twelve Weeks, Twelve Months, Twelve Years
by Xyzantylzethyrioses
Summary: [Canon and onward; War; Justice; Dark; Full cast] Very complete description inside. Between Grimm, Cinder, and the racists vs White Fang conflict, Team RWBY spends years of their lives at war - real war - trying to make the world right. That is, once they've learned how to be a team. Parallels existing plot and thoroughly explores one set of possible future developments.
1. Introductions… Great…

Chapter 1 – Introductions… Great…

 **Author's Note:**

Useless statistics: Chapter finished October 13, 2015. Published October 13, 2015. Total word count: 28103. Body word count: 19898 (71%). Chapter Rating: T.

 **Feel free to skip any or all of these sections in the beginning if you just want to read the story. This long Chapter 1 Author's Note contains details to help you determine whether you want to read it, and outlines formatting, logistics, and historical perspective. I'm a completionist, so this is all to help you guys** (and gals... but I consider "guys" to be gender-neutral, so I don't apologize) **.**

 **Setting:  
** This story starts near the beginning of Volume 1. It _will_ have spoilers for all(?) canon details, although some details will be changed a bit. Regardless, do yourself a favor by choosing one of these options:  
1.) Watch what exists of RWBY before reading this.  
2.) Don't whine about spoilers.  
Spoiler-free plot prediction: The story will cover everything important in Volume 1 and Volume 2, as well as Volume 3 although I'm writing this during that Volume so things may split off there. The story obviously goes at least 12 years into their lives, and is filled with plenty of war and bonding... once I get to a point in the plot where breaking into war makes sense. The pairing [Weiss, Blake] will be solidly plot-focused (born of plot and developing plot), not its own separate plot parallel to the real conflict like in most stories.  
Unfortunately, I need to go back to the beginning to achieve what I'm looking to achieve, so it might not be the most novel story for quite a while. There are tons of additions and plenty of fairly small changes, so the beginning isn't really skippable.

 **Characters:  
** Most Noteworthy Characters: Weiss Schnee (mostly her point of view), Blake Belladonna, Mr. Schnee, Adam Taurus, Cinder Fall. These will eventually be the four listed in the preview description eventually, once I get past historic stuff. (But that's five! Yes, but I'll swap them in and out based on their impact on what's currently published.)

All Developed Characters: Almost the whole cast. Ruby, Yang, Blake, Weiss, Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora, Ren, Cardin, Coco, Velvet, Ozpin, Glynda, Ironwood, Port, Oobleck, Adam, Cinder, Torchwick, Emerald, Mercury, Neopolitan, Tukson, Junior, Penny, Sun, Qrow, Raven, Taiyang, Summer, Mr. Jacques Schnee, Winter, Whitley, Klein, Tyrian, Hazel, Dr. Watts, Salem, Amber, Summer Maiden, Spring Maiden, Winter Maiden, and a few OCs so there are enough people for war and side events. I'm cutting off somewhere into Volume 4.

Planning to briefly mention, when appropriate, but not develop: The rest of teams CFVY and CRDL, Zwei, Team ABRN, Team BRNZ, Team NDGO, Junior's lackeys, White Fang members, all those news/police/government/business people.

I have OCs. They are necessary for filling roles that just can't be filled with the limited original cast, but are mainly for making the school and the world in general not seem so small.

Running list of OCs: Team GAZE: Gyudel, Alevyí, Zelvendis, and Exzys, who are described in chapter 3. Creep, who participates in chapter 6. Mr. Fluffschnee, who is there from chapter 1 but is finally revealed in chapter ? (Sorry, no spoilers until I'm past it).

 **Genres:  
** Basically everything. Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Tragedy, and Adventure are the main intended genres. There will be smatterings of Family, Comedy (hopefully), Crime, Angst, Drama, Romance, and Suspense. RWBY is innately somewhat Fantasy and Sci-Fi, too, but less on the latter. This is not poetry, Western-themed, AU sci-fi themed, parody, supernatural-themed, spiritual, horror (darker parts are for empathy/sadness factors, not for the scare factor), or mystery.

I can't pretend to get away with not listing tragedy as one of the major genres. It will be part of the story in several places, although it won't be omnipresent. I was originally planning on writing this summary to look like there won't be tragedy so it would end up being more surprising, but that's rather naïve of me. Some of you might think, "No! No tragedy! Don't ruin anything for any of the characters like that!", but tragedy is a good thing. It heavily develops the characters to function better in a realistic world, both internally and in bonds with other characters. It also develops the readers. The meanings of life are to continue life and to love; to truly care for people. Experiencing the characters' tragedy builds our capacity for empathy by "practicing" our love, on the characters we care about...

 **Rating:  
** M. It's just for the dark stuff. Don't count out any serious, graphic, lasting injuries, but it won't be… never mind, there will be some really hard-to-read scenes, and not because of writing quality but because of the content's interaction with your humanity. There's nothing that is M because of romance. Lemon writers can write lemon, and your imaginations can write whatever you want, but it won't be here.

 **Some formatting and logistics:  
** Mostly copy-pasted with light editing from my other story.

Thoughts will be in italics, although so will stressed words. It should be easy enough to tell the difference. Projected thoughts (telepathy – which I don't plan on adding) and the "other person on the phone" are in quoted italics. Regular speech is in regular quotes. Footnote clarifications will be pointed out by an underlined number in parentheses directly following the potentially-confusing word or phrase. If you have any other formatting questions, don't hesitate to ask... But seriously, it should all be fairly clear.

This is my second published story, and I have not yet received any quality complaints on my first, so expect it to be plenty readable even if you're an OCD grammar-Nazi. Well, that's probably because plenty of people probably consider me to be one of them... I like to break English by twisting it and poking fun at it to my heart's content, so I'll probably do that occasionally. Some phail grammar and such is are be on purpose. But feel free to give any corrections or suggestions, including story suggestions. Although most of the plot is already planned, some things can fit in anyway and some things are reversible enough that I can carry them out and then later undo them to get to my end result. On another note, I like horrendous puns that are so bad that nobody could ever pretend they're funny, and ones that are puns of puns so far off on a tangent that you can't tell what they're supposed to mean. Maybe I'll have mercy and footnote any of those. Or maybe they won't exist since they really go into dialogue best, and none of these characters are me, although Yang likes her share of first-degree bad puns. (Mine sometimes have like four layers of pun and are completely incomprehensible.) If there are any hideously bad puns, they'll be referenced by an underlined number in parentheses, then explained in the author's note at the end of the chapter. I'll also footnote a synopsis of the chapter in case some people can't tell what's going on and it's a part you should understand (not just foreshadowing or building suspense), and in case you come back to the story and want a brief reminder of what happened. I will also have a "Changes Synopsis" for Volume 1 chapters so if you start reading this when it's well into Volume 2 or past that and you want to just get to the really different stuff, you'll have enough background to do that. RWBY is a living fandom, so I feel it's necessary to inform readers which era this story is written in. That's also why there's the Publish Date statistic.

More about me... I'm usually more of a reader than a writer. I have hundreds of reviews on this site, most of which give meaningful input. I highly encourage more reviewers to point out typos and errors, give real-time predictions, comment on characterization and plot logic, and cite the lines that you're commenting on so that the author can find it. It's not necessary for there to be feedback, but it certainly is beneficial when both parties involved have the right mindset.

I don't feel the need to make chapters a certain length, and I scorn those who claim things like 5000+ or 10000+ words are required per chapter for it to be considered a full chapter. (Ironically, this chapter is ridiculously long... I could split it, but I originally planned for it to be thematically cut off by "welcome to Beacon" stuff, and that's basically what it is.) I don't hate length restrictions because long chapters are bad or short chapters are good. Simply, the chapter is done when there's a logical break in the plot, or in point of view, or when there's an opportunity for overpowdered suspense/cliffhangers. I write as much as I want, partition it into logical chapters, and send them off when I feel the need. I won't have a rule about how many chapters/how many words posted per X time interval, which may disappoint plenty of you, but I have enough interests that you shouldn't trust for me to hold myself to a schedule for leisure activities. At the moment, writing and reading are my favorite pastimes, although now I'm mostly reading things to expand my views on the RWBY characters so I can better represent them in this story.

May as well do the stupid disclaimers. I do not own any part of RWBY or Rooster Teeth, or any canon plot events or canon characters or terminology or any of that. I just have this story, which uses plenty of elements from RWBY.

 **Inspiration:  
** My initial ideas for this story popped into my brain around 7:00 AM (UTC, DST) on October 6th 2015, which is about a year after Volume 2 was finished and two months before Volume 3 was expected to start. (I don't expect any of you to actually care.) I'll update this paragraph if any of my published chapters get ahead of canon. This paragraph is mostly necessary for possible contradictions with canon, since the time scale will likely cover all of RWBY that will ever be made. (I don't expect RWBY to cover twelve years of their lives. Don't know if any of you do.)

Some themes are similar to those found in other stories. Impossible not to do so. But the fan fiction stories with the largest impact on this one are probably: "Remnant's Reclaimer" by Hysterical Clerical Hijinks, and "Children of Summer" by Zeroan. The former seems to be abandoned at the moment (EDIT: Nope. Was just a 6.5 month hiatus.) but really doesn't have too much suspense for the ending; it's still a fine read even if it is discontinued. The latter is finished. I recommend skipping the epilogue – weird stuff. Motivation for some of the dark stuff is from "Evolution", a discontinued FF13 fanfic by Darkgirl5, which has amazing tear-inducing powers. I planned out the important dark details for this story before reading the following, but "Those Left Behind" by BlackenedHearts was slightly inspirational. Some fluff inspiration was from "Catnip" by FirecesomestDefenestrator. Heck, another of my inspirations was pondering over what could possibly be in "Ninjas of Love" if it isn't as bad as some people think.

If there are any other parts that seem related to other stories, 1.) You may be looking too closely; 2.) It may be a coincidence (I haven't read every story ever); 3.) I may have forgotten where the idea came from. If you want, I can cite similar ideas to give credit where credit may or may not be due. Do so via PM or review – either is fine – although I doubt any of you will actually care about this. There's no intentional plagiarism here.

 **Personal RWBY Character Views:  
** My order of general superiority is BWRY, my brother's is RYWB, and my sister's is WBRY. This might affect more of the story than which ones are the "main" characters, but I never intended to make this story unreadable to contrary shippers. I attempt to logically process these decisions, which means it's less "author thinks it's hot and could happen" and more "this is why it's actually plausible for this to kick off and last". Why do I even have preferred ships? I think friendship is superior to romance, but romance with a strong friendship base is acceptable. Two of my friends recently got married (recent relative to the initial release of this chapter), and the two have had a very strong base of friendship for years already. It's a very heartwarming relationship to behold, and I highly doubt they'd ever divorce. They're doing things right by my book. Another similar comment is that I like plot-focused ships. (But not ship-focused plots! coughGuiltyCrowncough, coughSAOseason1.5cough)

RWBY ship evaluations: Sun and Neptune are trash characters. Rooster Teeth does not at all justify their connections to Blake and Weiss, respectively, and essentially relies on the argument that it's possible that there's physical attraction. Sun has one shared trait, being a faunus. There's an equal amount of canonical evidence against the pair: "Do you always break the law without a second thought?" There's even less going for Neptune. Hate. Hate. Hate. Jaune and Pyrrha is canon and I agree with it. Enough said. RY is taboo territory. Some people are fine with that. Even I'm mostly fine with that in some stories (not real life), but it doesn't fit very well in RWBY. It probably would've been established before Volume 1, so I don't see any way to reconcile it with canon. RW is okay, but I don't see any strong connections there. They didn't get along at the beginning of Volume 1 and now they do. I don't see much for shared personality traits or hobbies. They were paired on Day 1 and are generally supportive, and both wear "Combat Skirts". It relies on both Weiss falling prey to Ruby's cuteness... which I disagree with, although there is evidence that Weiss likes cute things... and Ruby spontaneously activating romance mode. RB doesn't have much for it. It might be founded on books? Eh. Somehow, it's one of my top 3 though. WY is clearly founded on lighthearted verbal abuse and cheesy contrasting "elements" symbolism. It's all Yang-dependent to me; all about how far you think teasing can go. Somehow one of my top 3. I hate BY with a passion. I rarely like Yang, and I think Blake can do better. There's not much teasing to be had and they don't really have any historic/factional connections, so the foundation is weak to me. Just feels like Yang liking hook-ups and Blake somehow going with it. If you have different views, I may be willing to insert them here. BW! My favorite. They fit really well in my opinion. They were originally members of opposing factions (Schnees vs. White Fang), and now they know that and get along other than the occasional dispute. I think together they can make significant progress on Blake's goal of ending racism. (I think Blake's quote in Volume 2 to Oobleck about becoming a huntress is the most important part of her. "There's too much wrong in this world to just stand by and do nothing. Inequality? Corruption? Someone has to stop it." Weiss certainly seems to agree with her quote around the campfire: "I'm not stupid. I'm fully aware of what my father has done with the Schnee Dust Company. Since he took control, our business has operated in a... moral grey area. Which is why I feel the need to make things right!") Their personalities also don't oppose each other, so they can actually connect meaningfully. The racial divide is also a great opportunity for Weiss to learn about her previous prejudice, and Blake is the most logical source of exposition on the subject. A closer friendship, if not more, is almost necessary in canon in order for them to acknowledge Weiss's desire to change. Neither one is much of an initiator, which both makes it interesting to develop and makes it canonically possible, unlike RY. Maybe it just hasn't happened yet. On the negative side, they had some serious disagreements before settling their factional differences, but as far as I'm concerned they're completely over that (look at the Ruined City hunter-motivation quotes again). Ruby can successfully be paired with a large variety of characters. She's naïve, friendly, and optimistic, so befriending and "converting" villains is a theme of which I'm quite accepting.

EDIT (Added with chapter 3): VnLSKArj43kfdsalkJ43$#%fnds. I watched some RWBY-focused Rooster Teeth podcasts, and apparently the voice actors ship Bumblebee. I don't understand. They say there's some level of "opposites attract" and some "chemistry". I see none of it. Yang isn't a dick to Blake since Blake doesn't react to that, so she expresses her friendship by actually being friendly. Blake doesn't see anything to hate, and is fine with it. But Blake doesn't have anything against Ruby, either. Back to the topic of opposites, if anything, Yang and Weiss are more of opposites in the propriety department. However, Weiss and Blake are ideological opposites – at first – which is my primary reasoning for Checkmate. It's umpteen bajillion times more meaningful than a slight personality difference. The ship can be focused on non-fluff plot and overcoming differences, rather than randomly deciding to date a teammate who's been "just a friend" for several months and just getting along perfectly fine with a nice sappy relationship.

(More from chapter 3): YB ignores Blake's depth. She chose to leave the White Fang with a lifelong goal of upholding justice, and told Oobleck that she basically wanted to save the world. Yang's motive is having fun. Period. She can be helpful and caring, but doesn't look for any sort of meaning. Blake avoids finding fun on her own, only participating when her friends will it, and instead chooses her own actions based on duty toward justice. If she's anything like me, even her leisure, reading, isn't just for entertainment; stories literally always have moral topics in them. When I read, I empathize with characters for evils received and judge them on a moral scale. My interpretation of Ninjas of Love and my Sun interactions will elaborate on the reading topic and Blake's personal desire for depth, respectively. On the Weiss side of things, in order for her to really accept Blake's heritage and for her to denounce her father's evils, she should give a real apology rather than ignoring the issue. The best way for her to apologize in a way that shows she truly does care is to actively oppose racism, and this would involve Blake. A meaningful friendship based on this interaction could turn romantic just as easily as any whimsical attraction ship, but it has a lot more backing it. I sure hope Monty wasn't actually planning on introducing racism as just a small, unimportant hurdle to learning backstories; they need to seriously attack racism, or it'll be a horrible moral/social/political plot hole. Unfortunately, I don't know if RT is that sensitive to the viewers.

 **EXTREMELY IMPORTANT. PLEASE READ IF YOU CARE ABOUT CHARACTERS:** Just writing here to remind you that this story is in the Tragedy genre. During the writing of Chapter 6 I randomly rolled on ALL characters who exist (see RWBY wiki, plus my OCs, plus Mr. Schnee, MINUS Shopkeep since he's immortal) to determine their final fate by the end of the story, except for those I've already given plot armor in order for the story to function. It's looking awfully bloody. If you petition me nicely, with actual attempts at persuasion, for characters that you love (and you're unlucky enough that they're among those chosen), I MIGHT spare them and move deaths to less important characters. I'm not going to directly say (in an Author's Note) which ones are chosen, and I'll only allow one chance at one petition per person, and won't necessarily accept them. It's for you, not me. Hint: Please ignore RWBY and JNPR. They're far too important for me to have rolled their lives away. (Actually, I did randomly roll JNPR since they're not that important to me even if they're extremely important to plenty of the show's fans, but they all lived.) I won't mind if people don't ask to spare characters, but you guys might mind in retrospect as early as Chapter 15, although the exact number isn't planned out yet. Anyway, if there's some minor character you don't want dead, you'd better let me know with some nice complaints that attempt to stab my heart out.

Thank you for reading these hideously boring but potentially useful pieces of information. Drama, fight scenes, back story, adventure, and plenty more are all included in this chapter, so cheers. Let's teach Weiss some humility. I'll leave you with a soothing, inspiring quote: "I'm the loneliest of all." And without further ado, I present chapter one of "Twelve Hours, Twelve Days, Twelve Weeks, Twelve Months, Twelve Years", "Introductions… Great…":

* * *

 **Story starts (just below) here.**

* * *

The white-haired girl looked past the wing of the private jet toward the ground and the scenery triggered recognition. The stone and metal towers and arches growing out of the surrounding vegetation definitely belonged to Beacon – she'd already looked at pictures, maps, and schedules so she would be nice and prepared. After all, a Schnee is always prepared. _I'm finally here! The land of freedom! No more stupid business meeting and corporate headaches, and no more stupid parents to tell me what to do!_ , she thought triumphantly, while her face showed no hint of her jubilation. She couldn't; she _was_ still sitting next to the man who wanted to make her into his exact duplicate.

Unfortunately, that last line of thought caused her to shudder slightly. Sure, she wanted to run the SDC(1) when her father retired, but she didn't need to morph into his clone to do so. She wanted to be able to be her own person – which was part of the reason why she was on a private jet to Beacon.

Even more unfortunately, the cause of Weiss's discomfort noticed that shudder. "Hold yourself together, _girl_." That was the name he used when she did something that didn't please him, which was a fairly common occurrence since his standards were so high. Too high. For anyone. "You can't afford to spasm in public and make fools of _us_. Whatever you're thinking about is not nearly important enough to be worth worrying over."

"Yes, Father; I won't do it again," she replied robotically. It was a practiced response that Weiss learned was somehow enough to quell Mr. Schnee's anger every time.

"It's a shame Winter can't(2) be the heiress; she's much more deserving..." the CEO muttered to himself.

Weiss managed to hear the remark and her face lit up with both anger and embarrassment. Although her face was displaying more than she'd like, the heiress did manage to keep her tongue in check. Arguing wouldn't accomplish anything. By this point, the jet was coming in to land, and the dying conversation naturally cut off. The pilot touched the plane down gently, smoothly, perfectly – if he didn't, he would've been fired on the spot and likely would not have been hired in the first place. The Schnees had no need for anything but the best.

Weiss carefully deposited her many briefcases and suitcases on the luggage cart they brought on the plane and wheeled it down the ramp to the pavement. Mr. Schnee followed her out of the plane and extended his hand for a handshake. Weiss begrudgingly returned the gesture. _Of course it can't be a hug like a normal family would do. Has he_ ever _hugged me?_ "Goodbye, Father," she added, with as much remorse as she could falsely force into her voice. _I think I got the downcast eyes right, too._

"Goodbye, Weiss. Focus on your goals. Hopefully they'll be able to drill some more discipline and obedience into you here. And a sense of duty..." With that, the businessman turned and re-entered the jet. It took off within two minutes.

Weiss let out a sigh. _It's just like him to leave on such a bad note. No "I love you", although that would be a lie anyway. Well... The first order of business is to get my belongings to the ballroom. There are lockers, but there's no way all of this will fit, so that's my best bet._

The private jet had landed on a path to the east of Beacon's main gate(3), so Weiss had to head west to get in. Many students were arriving by airship and were filing into the school grounds from the south, the direction of the cliffs, and some were walking in from the west, from Vale. None of them caught her eye. They were all immature children in her eyes, pointing and laughing and overall enjoying their entrance to the Academy way too much.

When she finally got to where the path branched off to head toward the entrance, she saw a red and yellow duo having an argument. The yellow-themed girl, wearing a brown jacket and black short-shorts and sporting long, bright yellow hair, rushed off toward the school grounds, leaving the other behind. Unfortunately, Weiss didn't notice that she was staring and her feet were following her gaze, and only noticed when the red-themed girl tripped and fell onto the luggage cart. The brunt of the impact was on a white case containing Dust... This certainly was not good. Some of the bottles may have broken. Luckily, nothing exploded. Yet. And at least Weiss was spared the embarrassment of one of her cases of _more personal_ belongings popping open, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

 _What a klutz!_ "Hey!" she scolded. "What are you doing?! Do you have any idea how much damage you could have caused?" The girl in red, wearing a black dress with red around the edges, a red cape, and black tights under black and red boots, finally managed to get up from the carnage. Her short red-tipped black hair was tousled from the fall and she still looked bewildered. "This is _Dust_! Fire, water, ice, lightning, energy! You could have caused an explosion! Do you even care? Are you even listening? What do you have to say for yourself?"

The red girl looked like she finally managed to piece together a coherent sentence. Well, she would have, if she hadn't sneezed at that moment, igniting all the Dust floating around in the air around the two. If Weiss hadn't been right in the blast radius, she might have thought it was funny: Snowflakes, fireballs, and bolts of lightning all popped into existence and rained down around the pair, dirtying Weiss's pristine dress and launching a case of Dust off down a path.

Weiss was beyond thought; her tongue was moving much too quickly for her brain to keep up. That girl needed to be taught a few lessons. "Unbelievable! This is exactly what I was talking about!"

"I... Uh... I'm really sorry!" exclaimed Mrs. Explosion.

"You dolt! You've wasted Dust! And it could have hurt someone!" the heiress stomped, looking down at the other girl. Her eyes traveled a little lower and she gasped. "You even ruined my dress! How could you?! You have no idea how much that cost!"

"I said I'm sorry," the other girl whined, tapping the tips of her index fingers together.

"Aren't you a little young to be attending Beacon, shrimp? This isn't a day-care. It's not even just a regular combat school. We fight _monsters_ here. I highly doubt you're cut out for this," Weiss continued ranting.

"I SAID I'M SORRY, PRINCESS!" she (verbally) exploded.

A third voice joined the conversation. "It's _heiress_ , actually. Weiss Schnee: Heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, the largest producer of energy propellant in the world." That voice belonged to a girl wearing a tailed black vest over a white undershirt and shorts, complemented by black leggings which faded into purple toward the bottom and black boots. She had long, wavy black hair with a rather childish black bow perched on top.

"Finally! Some respect!" responded Weiss. _It looks like at least_ some _people around here are capable of rational thoughts and actions._

However, that small flame of hope was extinguished when the black-themed girl continued her monologue about the SDC. "It's the same company infamous for its controversial labor forces and questionable business partners."

Wonderful. Insulting her family. Nothing had gone right since Weiss had landed, and now she allowed her anger to boil over. "How dare you! Watch your tongue!" She noticed the case of Dust the other girl was holding, probably the one that had gone flying just prior. "Give me that!" She slammed the briefcase onto the luggage cart, straightened out the stacks of belongings, and stomped off into the school grounds.

The heiress pulled the luggage cart(4) with her right hand while holding the bridge of her nose with her left hand – the best possible option for calming herself down. _Such a heart-warming welcome to this 'wonderful' Academy. So... I still need to drop off my things, and the welcoming ceremony will be soon. To the ballroom..._

It was only a three minute walk to get to the aforementioned building. Nobody else was there other than a professor sitting next to the door, presumably to protect everyone's belongings. Weiss supposed nobody else cared enough to actually look at the move-in schedule. She took the luggage and cart in a corner in a side room – hopefully that would be a fairly safe location; she couldn't find a better spot – then changed into a fully intact dress and went to the amphitheater for the welcome speech. As expected, there was already a large crowd of students waiting for the headmaster to make his appearance. Almost all of them were carrying bags with them since they were too lazy to find out where their belongings were to be kept for the day.

Unfortunately, _(I've had to think that word_ way _too much today!)_ Weiss was funneled into a spot directly behind her new favorite person, Mrs. Explosion, who was speaking with the yellow girl who had left just before Mrs. Explosion's accident.

"How's your first day going, little sis?" asked the tall blonde.

"You mean since you ditched me and everything blew up?"

"Yikes. Meltdown already? I'm sure it wasn't that bad."

"No. There was dust and I sneezed and it exploded and there was fire and ice and it was an EXPLOSION. An explosion, Yang. I tripped over some crabby girl's luggage" – Weiss's brow furrowed once again – "and then she yelled at me! The dust blew up, and she yelled at me again. I felt really, really bad!"

The heiress couldn't take it anymore. " _You!_ You're lucky nobody was seriously injured!"

"Oh my gosh, you really did explode, Ruby," The immodest yellow girl interjected.

"Sorry; it was an accident! An accident! I promise!" the red girl, Ruby, replied to both of them.

Weiss had just the thing for this imbecile. She whipped out an SDC pamphlet – fortunately, she always carried a few with her when she went out in public – and spouted off the relevant information: "The Schnee Dust Company is not responsible for any injuries or damages sustained while operating a Schnee Dust Company product. Although not mandatory, the Schnee family highly encourages their customers to read and familiarize themselves with this easy-to-follow guide to dust application and practice in the field."

"Uh..."

"If you really want to make things up to me, read this and never speak to me again! You're too dangerous to have around."

This is where Ruby's sister stepped in once more. "Look, it sounds like you two just got off on the wrong foot. Why don't you try to be friends or something?"

"Great idea, Yang," replied Ruby, who then turned to Weiss. "Yellow, Weiss. I'm Ruby, and this is Yang. Want to be friends? Hang out? We could shop for our school supplies together."

Perhaps reason just wouldn't work with these two, so Weiss opened a new can of language. The one labeled 'Sarcasm'. "Yeah! And we can also shop for clothes, and paint our nails, and go to parties, and talk about cute boys like that tall, blond, scraggly _stud_ over there. We're gonna be best buds, Ruby!"

Weiss smirked as Ruby took the bait. The girl's face lit up like a Christmas tree(5). "Oh, wow! Really?"

 _Now to crush her pitiful dreams! Muahahahaha! … I need to never use that laugh again._ "No."( 6) she deadpanned with a very deep frown on her face. Hopefully Mrs. Explosion would get the picture.

Weiss never got to find out. Just then, a gray-haired guy wearing a green suit and glasses spoke into a microphone, projecting his voice into the crowd. "Ahem. I'll keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills. And when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your lives to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you and all I see is wasted energy in need of purpose; direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step, and hopefully a few steps after that. It would be nice if you'd all last at least a few weeks before you're put out of commission(7)." He didn't even introduce himself, but Weiss recognized him by his picture on the Beacon website. It was Professor Ozpin, the headmaster.

Ozpin stepped to the side and a woman with blonde hair, a tight black and white dress, and a disheveled purple cape stepped up to the mic. Glynda Goodwitch, the second-in-command. "You will gather in the ballroom tonight. Until then, please follow your assigned guides for tours." Weiss rolled her eyes. She already knew that, but the gasps around her reinforced the theory that nobody else did their research. "Tomorrow your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed." Then Goodwitch followed Ozpin off the stage, leaving the students to their own devices.

"He seemed kinda off, almost like he wasn't even there," Yang commented. Frankly, Weiss didn't care. She already knew everything she needed to know about the first two days.

A distinctly male voice butted in. "I'm a natural blonde, you know."

Weiss had no choice but to facepalm.

* * *

Weiss was pleasantly surprised to find that all her stuff was still parked in the corner of that side room when she made it back to the ballroom. Good. At least _something_ was going right today; the guy watching the door didn't let anyone steal her things.

Once the heiress found herself a sleeping mat – those were provided by the Academy for today – the kitchen staff came in with trays of sandwiches and coolers full of bottled water. _Looks like that's our supper. I'm glad the servants packed me a_ real _sandwich before I left,_ thought Weiss.

It was a decent meal for her. By no means was it as good as the hot meals prepared for her at home, but it still fed her a touch of familiarity. She was sure her packed sandwich was leagues better than the school's food. It felt appropriate that she would take a small step down in food quality today, since there would be a larger leap in the negative direction starting the next morning. Weiss was raised to worry more about finances and business partners than about exact aspects of luxury, like food, but it was a little disheartening to fully realize that she wouldn't have "the good stuff" for quite a while. _Oh, come on! I shouldn't be getting homesick, especially over something as trivial as taste buds. I'm better than this,_ she scolded herself.

Now that the meal was finished, she had free time – a very foreign concept(8). Everyone had arrived at Beacon by the early afternoon and waited around for a short while for the welcoming speech. After that, the students had filled out all kinds of paperwork, mostly about health, safety, and background, and had been given short tours by some of the upper-classmen. It wasn't too terribly engaging for Weiss, but it kept her busy and kept away all the annoyances that arose from free interaction with other dunces her age. Once the tours were done, it was already time for supper, but now that that was done, Weiss was left without any urgent matters to which she needed to attend. It was only 7:00 pm, way too early for sleeping; besides, everyone else was running around like headless chickens, complete with annoying gargling squawks that sounded like they'd come out of that type of creature. … Free time.

Weiss wasn't _allowed_ to have any hobbies until now. She was forced to attend two hours of fencing training per day five days a week since she was twelve years old, but that wasn't a hobby. She was forced to do it, and although she grew to like fencing, it really wasn't something that could be done at any time or in any location, so it didn't count for her current needs.

She'd also read books, but those were all for her private lessons. If they weren't the driest textbooks anyone on Remnant had ever heard of, they were obscure old novels that were intended to teach her certain lessons, and the experience was ruined since she was required to deeply analyze all of them. She didn't even know if there were any kinds of books she liked; everything until now was supplied for her.

Outside of those two hobby-like activities, she had to do plenty of 'homework' and attended business meetings, banquets, and all sorts of other special events. She even had a private scheduler ensure every hour of every day was filled with something not of her choosing. Even shopping trips, birthday parties, vacations, and holiday events were carefully planned.

 _So,_ pondered Weiss, sitting on a case of Dust, _what are my options? This is a one-day residence, so there's no use in unpacking anything. I already have my sleeping mat prepared – I still don't forgive them for not providing real beds! – and it's too early to clean up to get ready for sleeping. I don't know anyone and really don't want to, judging by the handful of people with whom I've already had to interact today. I wouldn't be caught dead chatting or_ misbehaving – she glared at a pink-skirted girl with red hair who was jumping up and down on top of a green-clad boy with long black hair(9) – _with any of them. There are no assignments for the first day... There's nothing to prepare... Well now that I think about it, I suppose I could polish Myrtenaster some more._

She got some supplies out of a briefcase – cloths, waxes, fluids, and whetstones – and set about cleaning the rapier's edges(10). Fortunately, this was one task that she _had_ been taught to do for herself; after all, weapons are portable and personal, and hiring one person to follow her around at every whim as a personal servant would be rather extreme. There wasn't much to touch up, though, as the weapon was always used in a very controlled environment. It would stay in its well-groomed state until the next day, but it was all she had to do, so she improved on it a little. It still took several hours until Weiss was pleased with the weapon's finish, and by the time she was done her eyes were drooping so much that she could barely look at a clock to check how late it was.

Weiss retrieved her Shi-nee™ toothpaste(11) and toothbrush plus a washcloth with facial soap and headed to the – _Gasp! Communal!_ – restrooms to clean up before bed. There were plenty of other students also brushing their teeth, and none showed enough respect to step out of the way and let her have her turn to use a sink first. Of course not. There was nobody here to enforce proper social structure. After finishing the agonizingly slow tasks that involved the sink, plus emptying her bladder, she realized she had another problem: She needed to put on her pajamas. At home, her pajamas were always in her bedroom and it was a simple matter to change clothes. But here, she would probably have to find some sort of changing room, which probably wouldn't supply much privacy. It wasn't that Weiss didn't respect her own body, it's just that she thought it was rather important to be fully decent around other people... And... Sure, she was developed a little differently from some of the other girls, like that annoying blonde who supported Mrs. Explosion... But that certainly wasn't the main reason! If Weiss was going to be honest with herself, it was barely a reason at all( 12)!

Fortunately, Weiss was able to swiftly plot up a master plan which was carried out immediately. She inconspicuously transported her pajamas to the restroom in a briefcase, snagged a few paper towels from the dispenser, then claimed a stall for herself. Of course, the paper towels went on the floor in order to protect her clothes and feet from the vile filth produced by all the disgusting animals who were attending the school. Only after this safety net was fully set up, tested(13), and adjusted did she decide it was safe to change into her nightgown. She did so as quickly as possible. The walls did not go all the way to the floor, and you never know what some rapscallions might do because of that.

Now that all her preparations were complete, it was time for the heiress to get her beauty sleep. She made her way back to her sleeping mat and settled in. Most of the other recruits had the same idea; some were already snoring. Unfortunately, the noise made it that much harder for everyone else to fall asleep, and Weiss was the most important member of 'everyone else'. She buried her head under her pillow with the hope that the fluffy object would block out enough sound for her to fall asleep. Alas, 'twas not to be. Just to add insult to injury, it seemed, somebody had now decided to start a loud conversation. The heiress groaned and got up, angrily stomping in the direction from which the noise came.

As Weiss arrived on the scene, Ruby and Yang were having an all-out brawl, which certainly did not help the noise levels. _Great. Just great. It's those two. Again!_ "What in the world is going on over here?! Don't you realize _some_ of us are trying to sleep?!" At this point, Ruby had a hold on Yang's foot and they were both glaring holes into each other.

Of course, they couldn't stay angry at each other for long, which almost made Weiss even more angry. They _both_ answered, "Oh, not you again!"

In a remarkable turn of events, Ruby decided to use logic for the first time in her life. "Shh! Guys, she's right... People _are_ trying to sleep."

"So _now_ you're on my side? Grew some brain matter?" Weiss responded. _I probably should've sounded more thankful, but too late..._

"I was always on your side!"

Yang butted in. "What's your problem with my sister? Can't you just take a chill pill? I think I have one around here somewhere..."

"Shut up, you dunce! She's a hazard to my health, and I'm sure plenty of other people would also appreciate it if they could have a little bit of quiet once in a while!" the heiress snapped.

A small movement caught Weiss's attention: The black-haired girl who had insulted the SDC earlier that day gave a short nod of agreement, and held up a book to provide her reasoning. Then she decided to give her verbal two Lien(43). "Guys, let's just stop arguing and go to bed." She reached behind her chair to flick off a conveniently located light switch, leaving the room almost completely dark. Weiss groaned and stomped back to her makeshift bed as carefully as she could with only starlight to guide her.

She somehow wasn't interrupted from her sleep again that night.

* * *

Morning came, and Weiss woke up at a reasonable time without any interruptions. She was sure that could be considered a miracle. _Right, so today they're serving breakfast in the dining hall, which is... north_ (14) _. Hopefully they'll have something decent, or I'll starve to death._

It wasn't very hard to find the dining hall, as there was a constant slow trickle of students going to and coming from it. As she went in one of the numerous front doors, the air reminded her nose that this was a place of food. She could pick out the odors of bacon and eggs for sure, and when she got closer to the serving area she could see more items. There was dry cereal, oatmeal, baked things such as pancakes, bagels, and donuts, the aforementioned bacon and eggs (the former were labeled with a sign that read "Welcome to Bacon!"), plus a rack of fruit and some refrigerators with milk and juices.

The heiress took a tray, plate, spoon, and fork, then headed for the eggs. _It's hard to ruin eggs, so I should be safe with those,_ she thought. _Besides, they have protein, which is good for arduous activities. I need to be ready for the initiation._ However, she skipped the bacon, as that was bound to be really unhealthy. Plus, she had an image to uphold, and bacon would not help with that. Weiss snatched a bowl of pineapple chunks and raspberries, took a bottle of milk, and went to find a table( 15).

She was looking for a table away from most of the other lowly people when she found a better option: Pyrrha Nikos, the four-time champion of the Mistral Tournament during her education at Sanctum(16), was sitting alone at a table near a wall. It would be perfect if they could get on the same team! _I'm the smartest girl in the class, and she's the strongest girl in class. Nothing could stop us! Muahahahaha! Darn it, I'm not supposed to use that laugh anymore, even if it is just inside my head. Whatever! Conversation._ "Hello, Pyrrha," Weiss said, using her polite voice for the first time in what felt like decades. "Have you given any thought to whose team you'd like to be on? I was thinking we would make a great pair."

"I honestly haven't given it much thought," Pyrrha responded. "I was planning on just letting fate decide. I don't know how much of a choice we get in our teammates, anyway."

"Oh," the heiress said dejectedly, but then she instantly brightened a bit. "Well, you know, if it turns out that we _can_ have some choice, we'd make a great pair."

Pyrrha answered with a simple smile and nod, ending the conversation, so Weiss dug into her eggs. But this day was just not meant to be as sunny and happy as the eggs looked. Someone cleared their throat behind her.

"You know what else is great?" asked the voice. Weiss turned, and saw it was that blonde boy she'd sarcastically pointed out to Ruby before the welcoming speech. Because of what he had just said, she now wanted to find every dictionary on campus and change the definition of 'great' to something a little less positive, but she couldn't right now. The boy had her trapped. "Me. Jaune Arc. Short and sweet; rolls off the tongue. Nice to meet you."

Weiss remained silent. Answering him would only encourage him to continue. Pyrrha did answer, though, with a simple, "Nice to meet you, Jaune."

And Jaune was not deterred in the least. He completely ignored Pyrrha and once again addressed Weiss. "So, Snowflake(17), I couldn't help but overhear your fondness of me the other day. By the way, I already knew I was a stud, but thanks anyway. And I _am_ a natural blonde, in case you've forgotten."

"You've got to be kidding me," she replied, adding in a nice, healthy facepalm.

"No need to be embarrassed. I don't mind hearing the truth, especially out of someone like yourself. So! I've been hearing rumors about teams. I was thinkin' you and me would make a great one(18)."

Luckily, Pyrrha came to the rescue. "Actually, I think teams are comprised of four students each, so-"

"You don't say. Well, hot stuff, play your cards right and maybe you could join up with the winning team."

Really? This blonde buffoon, this blonde _buffalo_ , was taunting _and_ flirting with Pyrrha Nikos? "Jaune, is it?" Weiss interrupted. "Do you have any idea who you're talking to?"

"Not in the slightest, Snow Angel."

Weiss facepalmed once again. "This is Pyrrha," she groaned out. "She graduated at the top of her class at Sanctum."

"Never heard of it."

The heiress brought her other hand to join the first in plastering her face. "She's won the Mistral Regional Tournament four years in the row. A new record. She's a celebrity!"

"The what?"

Unfortunately, Weiss only had two hands, so she raised her voice a bit more. "SHE'S ON THE FRONT OF EVERY PUMPKIN PETE'S MARSHMALLOW FLAKES BOX!" Maybe she raised her voice slightly more than 'a bit' more.

"*Gasp!* That's you?! They only do that for star athletes and cartoon characters!"

"Yeah, it was pretty cool," Pyrrha responded. "Sadly, the cereal isn't very good for you."

Jaune was on the defensive; now was the heiress's chance! "So, after hearing all of this, do you really think you're in a position to ask her to be on your team?"

"I guess not," he replied. Yes! He was giving up! What she didn't know is that it was only a slight pause. "But you're still interested, right?"

Once again, Weiss was met with the prospect of having nowhere d*mn(19) near enough hands. "No, I'm not and I never was! Do you know who _I_ am?"

"Not a clue, but you do look oddly familiar. By the way, you've got a nice dress," he winked.

Another female voice cut in. "Weiss Schnee: Heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, the largest producer of energy propellant in the world." Weiss turned ninety degrees and found herself looking at the girl who insulted the SDC in front of Mrs. Explosion.

"You! Don't you dare finish that sentence. Just leave; you're not helping anyone."

The black-haired girl didn't leave. She simply gestured toward Jaune, which confused Weiss at first.

Until she looked. It turned out the heiress was wrong. Jaune's eyes were glazed over, looking vaguely in her direction. " _The_ Weiss Schnee? Oh, man. Which do you want to get out of the way first, giving me your autograph or taking me out to some fancy restaurant?"

"Pyrrha, a little help here?"

The redhead whipped out her weapon and put it into spear mode, then launched it at Jaune, pinning him to the wall by his shirt's hood. "I'm sorry!" she called.

Weiss looked left and right, clenching her fists and shaking her head at the boy and two girls, and stomped off to a far corner of the room with her tray. Once she was seated again, she picked up her fork, only to realize that the eggs were now cold. _Great. … Great, I really should use some connections to get that word's definition changed._ She settled for picking up her spoon and eating her fruits, then drinking her milk. She miraculously managed to finish her meal without being interrupted again.

She put her tray on the dish return and headed back to the ballroom, where she retrieved her bathroom supplies. As she was finishing up, a nearby loudspeaker announced, "All first-year students, please report to the northeastern cliff for initiation. First year students, report to the cliff immediately."

* * *

When Weiss arrived, Professor Goodwitch pointed out a metal plate on the ground to stand on. Whatever the initiation was this year (Weiss found that the task seemed to be different every year, with no apparent repetitions), the trials always included launching the recruits into the forest with these metal pads.

The other students happened to be competent enough to show up as well, although the heiress was one of the first to arrive.

Once everyone was gathered at the cliff, Professor Ozpin addressed them. "For years you have trained to be warriors, and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest."

Goodwitch spoke next. It seemed like the two had rehearsed this speech so they could switch back and forth. "Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of teams. Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates... Today."

Some students were visibly or audibly distraught, but Weiss didn't mind this piece of information. They'd get teams sooner or later, anyway, so it wouldn't make much of a difference when. Besides, it wasn't like there were enough likable people here that she would want to decide which ones to allow into her team, so she was probably going to end up with several useless teammates.

"These teams," continued Ozpin, "will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon, and many graduates choose to stay with them after they are gone from our Academy. So it is in your best interests to be grouped with others with whom you can work well."

"To confirm the rumors, your teams will consist of four members," Glynda added.

"That being said, the first person you come across after entering the forest will be your first of three teammates for the next four years," Ozpin finished.

The red menace and several others were not very happy about this, and many ear-splitting cries of " _WHAT?!_ " could probably be heard from a mile away.

There was clearly more to be said, as they hadn't been told their mission yet, and Ozpin delivered the answers for which Weiss was looking. "After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You _will_ meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path, or you _will_ die." That sentence was met with a few nervous chuckles from Jaune's direction. "You will be monitored and graded for the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each person must take one and return to the top of this cliff. Your items will be taken, and you will be graded based on your performance and results. Are there any questions?"

Jaune did not hesitate to show his incompetence. "Yeah, um, sir, I-"

"Good! Now take your positions."

"Uh, sir? I've got, um, a question." Weiss would never find out what that was, because as he continued speaking, the heiress was launched into the forest.

Although she'd never flown through the air unaided like this before, she didn't find it too troubling. Landing came naturally; the heiress simply created several glyphs in the air using her Semblance and then used those as stepping stones to get to the ground safely. She had one goal now: To find the one person she could put up with in order to secure at least _one_ competent ally.

That goal, however, was not nearly as straightforward as she expected. There was a lot of underbrush to slow her down and she couldn't see or hear any traces of the other students. She was almost lost. _Almost. A Schnee is never lost. A Schnee always knows what they're doing,_ she convinced herself. _All I have to do is keep heading straight ahead, and I'll get to the temple. I can hide and wait for my proper prey; everyone has to go there before we get to leave._

She continued trekking along, somehow managing to not bump into any monsters. The progress was slow.

Chop, run, leap.

 _Okay, Weiss, you can do it. A Schnee is strong. I can do this. Just get to the temple and pick your partner._

Crawl, climb, walk.

 _*Pant, pant.* Just a forest. It's just a forest. I've had worse._

Trudge, trudge, trudge.

 _How far is the stupid temple? I bet they're just tricking us. They want to find out if we'll run away or if we'll actually come back. Yeah, that's it._

Hack, slash, shuffle.

 _Do I hear-_

Yes, she did hear something. A few things. She looked around for the source of the disturbance, but felt it before she saw it.

Felt them.

Three people all managed to ram into her, and they all fell to the ground. Three people she recognized. Not one of them was Pyrrha Nikos.

"Great, just what I wanted," the heiress mumbled. That's what she thought she said, anyway. Everyone else could barely make out a, "Gmuuh, ih wu ah wau id," coming from under Yang's arm.

"Oh, hey guys!" Ruby said in her characteristic peppy voice as she brushed herself off.

"Ugh, my head..." the name-caller mumbled.

"Is everyone okay?" asked Yang as she got off of Weiss and stood up.

"Of course not!" "Yep, perfectly fine, sis!" "Not really..." came the answers.

"What happened? I was soaring over the treetops and decided this looked like a decent place to land," the blonde said.

"Hehe," Ruby giggled. "I was sort of running along with my Semblance and didn't watch exactly where I was going... Sorry..."

"I was just minding my own business, walking toward the temple, hoping to find someone at least a little bit better than you lot!" Weiss scolded.

"I found a balloon-shaped Grimm and it sort of exploded and here I am..." the black-haired girl added.

"How is it even _possible_ for all those trajectories to line up like that?" the heiress whined.

"Wait..." Yang pondered aloud, squinting her eyes in thought. "We all just ran into each other, right?" The others gave small affirmative shrugs. "And the first person we run into is our teammate, right?" She was met with reluctant nods. "So then we're all a team!"

"Hold it right there, Bright One," Weiss snapped. "We can't be a team. The professor said the first _person_ we find is our teammate. Not _people_. Besides, I'm not interested."

"Well, then who's _my_ teammate? I don't know who I ran into first. It all happened in way under a second," said Anti-Schnee( 20).

"Well-"

"She's right," said Ruby. "There's no way to figure this out properly. Maybe we could stick together for the rest of the mission and then the headmaster can sort this all out once we get back. It can't hurt to go as a group, right?"

"I don't-" "Way to go, Rubes!" "I suppose."

"Great! Then we're allies for now. Let's get those relics and get out of here!" Yang exclaimed, raising a fist in a cheer. "So... This way!" she said, pointing in some direction that looked similar to all the other directions.

"Uh, Yang?" Ruby started. "Are you sure you know which way we're supposed to be going?"

"Just be quiet for a moment, you dunces! I was actually going slowly enough to know where I was when we, well... So I should remember some landmarks. That tree," Weiss said, pointing toward a giant oak, "had a hollow in it that I could see from my direction. So I propose we face the hole and go that direction."

"That's great, but what if you were lost _before_ we-" started the Anti-Schnee, but Ruby cut her off.

"Yay, Weiss! Great thinking! Let's go, team Ruby!" Ruby exclaimed, glomping the girl in question.

"Why," the heiress squirmed, trying to loosen Ruby's grip, "would it be named after you? This isn't even a team; you're lucky I'm even helping you."

"Aww, Weiss..."

"C'mon, guys, let's just go. Worry about that later!"

The four headed off into the forest.

* * *

"Hey, isn't it a little strange to you guys that we haven't found any monsters?" Yang asked.

"Not really," Anti-Schnee answered. "Grimm like to attack weak targets, like individual people."

"Yeah," said the heiress. "And I've heard that they especially like going after people who are sad or upset."

"That sounds like _you_ ," shot Yang.

"Oh, shut up. I don't have to put up with this."

"Guys, stop it," Ruby interjected. "You might be attracting..."

"Growl."

Four voices grumbled, "Grimm."

Weiss could see six beowolves and two ursai, but there certainly could be more lurking in the shadows.

"The ursai are mine!" Yang called, switching her bracelets into gauntlets and charging at one of the large beasts.

Ruby and the Anti-Schnee also drew their weapons. The former had a scythe, and the latter had a thick sword, or maybe it would be better to call it a cleaver.

Not one to be outdone, Weiss enthusiastically drew Myrtenaster. _Okay... Remember your training, Weiss. Head up, shoulders back, left foot forward... not that forward. Slow your breathing. Wait for the right time to strike... And... Now!_ She charged at a beowolf that was facing Yang's back.

Of course, things couldn't simply go the way Weiss wanted them to go. Ruby zipped across her path as she went after a different beowolf. The heiress tried to slow down but ended up tripping and falling. Myrtenaster struck the ground, unleashing a stream of red dust that hit a tree, incinerating it. "Watch it, Ruby!" Weiss scolded, wrapped up in her anger rather than the battle.

"And _you_ ," came the the Anti-Schnee's voice, "should watch your back." Thud. The heiress turned to see two halves of a beowolf bounce off the ground, one of its arms extended not one foot away from her location.

Weiss glared, but turned back to face the enemies. She'd show them how to really kill Grimm. Myrtenaster shifted so the blue cartridge aligned with the left side of the blade(21) and she struck the ground, sending out a line of ice spikes that skewered one beowolf, immediately killing it, and trapped the other three (Ruby had killed two by that time, and the one Anti-Schnee killed had been hiding during Weiss's original count). _That's convenient that they lined up like that,_ she commented to herself. Anti-Schnee immediately went after the central one, hewing it in half, the one nearest to Weiss ended up with a rapier through its neck, and Ruby skewered the last one with her scythe. _There, that's done now... Wait, what about Yang?_

Yang was fighting the two ursai simultaneously. She didn't seem to be struggling. In fact, it looked like she was _playing_ with them – until one clawed at her and severed part of a hair. As the hair slowly drifted to the ground, her irises turned red and she burst into flame. "ALL!" she shouted as she punched one in the face, "EVERY!" – a punch to its gut – "BEAR!" – a punch to its gonads, and it collapsed backward – "STRAIGHT!" – an uppercut to the second one, launching it into the air – "PUNCH!" – she jumped and slugged it in the stomach, causing it to cannonball through several dozen trees and explode.

Weiss was staring, speechless, and Ruby was standing next to the heiress, cheering for Yang. Meanwhile, the black-haired girl walked over to the incapacitated ursa, which was laying on the ground with its forepaws glued between its legs, and slit its throat(22).

The white-haired girl looked around for more Grimm, but there didn't appear to be any nearby. "Good, I don't see any more anywhere," she informed the makeshift team.

"Yeah, all clear," said Anti-Schnee... but nobody cared. Ruby was squealing and hugging Yang to death.

Weiss continued on the group's original trajectory and called over her shoulder, "I'm going. You can follow if you want to; just don't slow me down."

Suddenly, Ruby was standing in front of the heiress with her arms scrunched just below her face like a bad impersonation of a dog. "See?" she lectured, "I'm not slow."

"You're slow in the head."

"What?"

"Exactly. Humph."

"Aww, come on... Can't you just give me a chance? I may not be the best with people, but you saw how good I was against those monsters!"

"You got in my way!"

"Guys," Yang said. "Stop arguing. We did fine. They're all dead and we're back on our way. Let's get to that temple."

* * *

 _Finally!_ Weiss saw a bunch of partially collapsed stone pillars trying to stand in a three-quarter circle at the bottom of the hill. _If that's not the forest temple, my name isn't Weiss Schnee._ "Guys..." she panted, "look... Forest temple. I think we might be the first ones here."

Perched upon small stone pedestals were crimson, gold, ivory, and ebony chess pieces: The relics(23).

"That was easy," Yang sighed.

"Maybe there are traps," pondered the black-haired girl.

"Wahoo!" Ruby exclaimed, and she rushed down the hill to the temple. She arrived inside the circular open-roofed structure before the rest of them could move two inches. However, this time her haste proved harmful.

A stone clicked into place below Ruby's feet. "Huh?" But nothing seemed to happen. The girl with red-tipped hair shrugged and went to step forward... but then the entire temple started to shake and four staircases opened, one directly below her, and all descending toward the outside of the area.

Weiss also saw all the relics tumble off their pedestals and fall into a new hole in the center of the temple. Stage three of the trap was the closing of the staircase Ruby fell into. She didn't end up on top of the stones.

Yang activated big sister mode. "Ruby! I'll save you!"

The other two were also somewhat concerned, and the three ran down to the temple.

"Maybe," suggested Yang, "one of these other staircases will lead to her. Let's split up."

"Fine. Maybe we'll find the relics as well," the heiress complied.

"Okay. I'm in," said the last of the three.

"Wait," said Yang. "Weiss, Blake, do you hear a girl screaming in the distance? It sounds like she needs help!"

Blake. So that was the Anti-Schnee's name. Weiss didn't care to learn it before; they'd have no reason to interact again after the initiation was over. Weird name.

"It doesn't concern me," said Weiss. "She'll be fine. Let's just get those relics."

They stepped into the temple, and this time Weiss stepped on a secret switch. The stone underneath her feet catapulted her into the air, where she collided with a screaming girl. _The trajectories today!_ No, it wasn't a girl. It was worse: Jaune Arc. "You!" the heiress spat. But then she looked down, and as all people know, that's when you're allowed to fall. Weiss joined in the screaming for several seconds, but composed herself enough to climb to the top of the tangle of bodies.

The heiress had a much softer landing than the yellow-haired, yellow-bellied boy. "Oh _thank_ you, kind knight. My _hero_."

The boy simultaneously groaned, "My _back_..." but once he heard what Weiss said, he added, "D'aww, stop it."

"Don't need to tell me twice. Humph. Thanks for nothing," she said. "If you're lucky I might leave a relic for you." The boy continued laying on the ground in the hopes of recovering. Meanwhile, Weiss walked from the grassy hillside back to the temple.

"Okay, this tunnel is mine," she said, pointing to one of the staircases. The others shrugged. All three descended into their separate passageways and stones closed off the paths behind them. Now Weiss was alone.

The odors of mold and earth filled the heiress's nostrils. Her ears were less stimulated, occasionally hearing a distorted echo that sounded a bit like the scuffling of feet. That was a good sign; the tunnels were probably connected if those sounds were from the others moving around. Then again, it was quite possible that something else was down here, like Grimm. It was completely dark, so she had no way to confirm either suspicion, and decided her only option was to walk onward(24). The heiress held her hands in front of her so she didn't run into anything too hard, and soon found a wall with her left hand. She held onto the filthy structure and her other hand scrabbled about for any other objects. There was another wall easily within arm's reach. So it was a one-way tunnel.

She continued walking, barely trailing the fingertips of each hand along the wall so she could be sure she didn't miss any branches in the path. The tunnel twisted and turned, completely decimating her sense of direction, but it stayed in one segment. After a short while, the passageway changed from rock into earth. Weiss could feel her fingernails being filled in with gunk, but she forced herself to stay in contact with the walls so she didn't miss anything. A few times she snagged a finger in a root, but it was only a small inconvenience. Eventually, she came around a corner and saw torchlight ahead! Now the heiress ran to the source, able to see that the walls held no secrets. The torch was surrounded with neighbors in a small underground chamber which split off into several different paths. All of them contained growling red eyes. _Of course._

The white-haired girl drew Myrtenaster and set it to red. A set of eyes stepped out of the leftmost tunnel, revealing a small beowolf. _Easy._ Weiss waited patiently for it to close in then ran it through with her sword. It was dying, but not completely dead, and showed that by swiping at her with a claw-filled paw. Myrtenaster was sunk too deeply into the beast, so she had to let go and hop back to avoid losing part of her face. The beowolf clawed feebly at her one more time, not close enough to warrant a step away, before it succumbed to its injuries and began dissolving into black smoke.

However, her weapon was trapped in its gut, which was now facing the floor. Were it larger, she would've had to either give up her beloved rapier or wait for the beowolf to completely dissolve. Luckily, it was small enough that she managed to barely flip it on its side and retrieve her sword. However, that took some time, and now two more sets of living eyes occupied the room with the girl.

One set belonged to a mole-like Grimm the size of a pony. All pictures she'd seen of moles before had tiny, nearly-useless eyes, but this Grimm's were wide open and the size of softballs, which made the disgusting thing even more frightening. The other set of eyes was rather numerous. A worm as tall as her thigh was staring at her with the huge swarm of eyes covering all sides of its body other than the front and back, which respectively contained a mouth and what Weiss expected to be a hole for excrement. _Eww, I'm going to-_ The sight was too much and she vomited, although it was probably the afternoon by now so there weren't any chunks left from the morning. The girl reluctantly wiped her mouth with the back of her right hand, then squinted one eye open enough to shoot fire at the more repulsive of the creatures. She heard sizzling and screeching and smelled burning tires.

Its death throes ended and she allowed her eyes to open again. Unfortunately, the mole was already upon her and one of its digging claws was way too close, too far along its path, for her to get out of the way. It tore a couple of small gouges in her abdomen, but luckily her Aura prevented any serious damage. _Great._ Weiss thrust Myrtenaster into its gaping tendril-circled maw and swirled it around. The thing quickly died from ichor loss( 25).

Another, bigger, beowolf rushed out of the left tunnel. She learned her lesson from the other one. This time Weiss ran up to it and slid around its right side, slashing across the fronts of its ankles along the way to hobble it. Now she turned around, took a step to her right, and gave point(44), puncturing through its spine until Myrtenaster's hilt met oily black fur. The creature hunched forward, obviously dead, and she used the momentum to help her remove her blade. The heiress looked around and didn't see any more Grimm.

Weiss checked the "left" tunnel, relative to where she entered, but it came to a dead-end cave after about twenty meters and she had already slain its last two inhabitants. The "forward" tunnel was also a dead end. It went about five meters, then turned upward. The hole was too small for her to fit into, and there were no good grips anyway. The last tunnel, the one on the right, was promising. There were torches at regular intervals along its walls down to where she saw it turn a corner. The heiress really didn't have any choice. She walked along the path. It had four turns, and then the floor began ascending. The walls also transitioned back to stone. It dumped her into a small chamber.

At the far end of this chamber was a small hole in the wall. Inside, Weiss found a pile of ivory chess pieces. _Aww, there's no queen. I suppose I'll settle for a knight. Horses are useful creatures._ She plucked the object out of the hole and pocketed it – her Dust pouch was full, but the combat skirt had pockets on the inside. They were a little inconvenient because she had to reach underneath to get to them, but they would do in a situation such as this one.

Behind the chess pieces, she noticed a stone chute, probably where they came from. It was definitely too small for her to dream of fitting into – her fist barely fit – but if the chess pieces came from there, it was connected to the temple. These were only the white pieces, which was awfully coincidental, but the other pieces must have gone somewhere, too. Not that she had any idea _how_ they would separate by a color code, but perhaps the others had found similar chutes.

"Hey!" she shouted into the small tunnel.

Soon enough, she heard _something_ come back. It was certainly a human voice, and certainly not an echo of hers, but it was too garbled from bouncing around for her to make out any of the words. She wouldn't be able to hold a conversation like this, so it was time to leave.

Just as Weiss started dreading the walk all the way back to the staircase and the possibility of it being closed, she spied a second doorway. It was hidden in the corner of the room, which extended behind the field of view from the entrance, which is why she didn't see it earlier. It was definitely worth trying.

The new tunnel took a sharp right turn almost immediately so it came in line with the entrance tunnel, then it ascended along a forty meter incline. At the top, it turned left into open air. Daylight.

The heiress looked around. There was a long stone bridge below her doorway that ran across a giant crater in the ground. Other similar platforms intersected with it at a central tower structure, and there were two more layers of bridges underneath at different angles. At one edge of the canyon were many small stone structures, possibly dilapidated buildings. The opposite side was a tall cliff that was far above the highest bridges. The whole area was covered in fog(26).

Well, this was definitely some sort of progress. Weiss jumped down onto a bridge, then looked back to see the tunnel close up behind her. Even if she wanted to go back by using her glyphs as stairs, she couldn't anymore. She was at the end of her current bridge. Unless she wanted to use glyphs, forward was the only direction available. The heiress walked at a leisurely pace toward the central tower. As she got nearer, she could make out yellow, red, and black figures also walking along bridges toward the tower. Weiss arrived at the tower and could definitely make out that it was Ruby, Yang, and Blake. _Well, they may not be the best companions, but all we have to do is get out of the forest alive. I don't_ think _they can mess that up._

"Hey! Yang, Weiss, Blake!" Ruby cheered. "Great to see that you guys made it!"

"Ruby, I'm glad you're safe!" Yang said in response, crushing the girl in a suffocating Big Sister Hug... Suffocating because of both Yang's strength and her, ahem, assets...

"Mm mm hmm bmm!" Ruby said. Yang released her, and Ruby finished. "Yang, I can't breathe! Well, couldn't. Thanks. Yeah, I'm fine. I even got a relic!"

"Nice job sis!"

"Hey," said Blake. "Looks like we have more on their way(27)."

True to Blake's word, Pyrrha, Jaune, a long black-haired guy wearing a green shirt, and an orange-haired girl with a white shirt and pink skirt were approaching from other bridges. Ruby dashed to each of them in turn to give a small greeting. Once she was done with three of them, all four were close to the tower and they all joined in on the conversation.

Since Ruby already got the greetings out of the way, Weiss got right down to business. "If we're going to be working together a little bit, it would probably be a good idea to know each other's names. That way we can communicate quickly and effectively in battle. I'm Weiss," she said, gesturing toward herself in a flourishing hand motion.

"Yang!"

"Ruby!"

"Blake."

"Pyrrha Nikos."

"Jaune Arc. Short; sweet; rolls off the tongue. Ladies love it."

"NORA!" – the orange-haired girl.

"Lie Ren."

"Great. So does anyone happen to know where we are?" Weiss asked. Her mind heard crickets in response. "Maybe I could use my Semblance to get to the top of the cliff on the far side over there. I could look around and try to find Beacon."

"Great," said Pyrrha. "You know, those buildings look a lot like the forest temple. If that's nearby, I'm sure we could find which direction we're facing."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Hey, did everyone get a relic?" Ruby queried. "I got a hor..." she trailed off – her jaw was almost hitting the stone floor. A giant raven Grimm appeared in the sky above them. It had probably been roosting near the top of the tower, tucked away and obscured by fog so they hadn't seen it before.

"We're not safe here. This tower isn't sturdy enough to protect us from something that large," Blake said.

"Pyrrha, you can go check on the ruins. I'll go to the cliff. That way whoever it decides to follow, we'll have a good fighter," Weiss suggested.

"Hey!" Ruby and Yang said together. Jaune simply looked down, dejected. Nora was busy not paying attention, and Blake and Ren didn't seem to care.

"Okay; it's a plan," Pyrrha agreed, nodding once. She ran toward the distant patch of land, and Weiss went the opposite direction.

The bird beast screeched far behind Weiss, but she was curious, so she turned to see what it was doing. It crashed through the far bridge. Once the rubble cleared, only Pyrrha and Ren were on the land side of the bridge, and Jaune and Nora were stranded right next to the gap. The other three – Ruby, Yang, and Blake – were on Weiss's bridge _(Grr...)_.

Probably startled by the noise, a scorpion-like Grimm(28) popped out of one of the ruined buildings, sending rock fragments flying in a wide radius. It looked like Pyrrha and Ren would be fighting two large Grimm on their own. Even if Weiss was primarily concerned with her own safety and grade, she cared enough to not throw away her companions so easily. Well, she was pretty sure killing off the other recruits would harm her grade, and she wanted to end up on Pyrrha's team, which wouldn't be possible if she was dead.

"Distract the bird!" Weiss commanded to her makeshift team. They all agreed it was necessary, so all four whipped out their weapons. Ruby's scythe unfurled, the point jabbing itself into the stone floor, and she began shooting bullets from the end of its shaft. Yang's bracelets extended into gauntlets, which shot bullets from above the backs of her fists when she punched the air. Blake unsheathed her sword rather than simply taking it off her back with the sheathe, then the blade of the weapon folded back to reveal a gun barrel, which was used to shoot purple globs of Aura. Weiss switched Myrtenaster's chamber between fire, ice, and lightning, and shot several Dust projectiles toward the flying foe.

The bird acknowledged the hits and flew in their direction. Weiss briefly caught sight of Nora launching Jaune across their gap by using her hammer and a segment of stone as a catapult, but then the heiress had to turn her attention back to the bird.

"We probably don't want our bridge to go out of order, right guys?" Yang asked.

Ruby nodded and raised a fist as if she were a commander leading a charge in a major historical battle. "To the tower!"

The four ran along, although Weiss was rather reluctant. "But that won't protect us!"

"At least," explained Blake, "it won't fall down and cut off our only way out. We can deal with a little bit of rubble, right?"

"Right..." Weiss grumbled. They had arrived.

Sure enough, the raven barreled right through the stone pillars of the tower. The girls scattered their separate directions to avoid being hit directly by the beast's extended talons. Weiss saw a large boulder falling down toward her, so she raised a glyph at an angle to deflect it away from her. Although it was too quick of a reaction for her to give much thought, she luckily deflected the boulder in a direction that wouldn't cut out their bridge.

Now that nothing was falling at her and there wasn't a bus-sized bird flying directly toward her, the heiress had a few moments to look around. The top of the tower was cleaved off, but the structure didn't appear to have destroyed any bridges and there were several pillars left standing that she could use for cover or for altitude. Yang was standing on the stump of a pillar at the beginning of one of the bridges shooting bullet after bullet at the bird's retreating form. Blake was actually standing _on_ its back slashing at the beast, although soon enough it banked, causing the girl to fall off. She used her weapon as a grappling hook to get back on top of a bridge, then ran back toward the tower. Ruby was standing on top of one of the ruined tower's pillars shooting round after round at the raven.

The Grimm came back, this time aiming for Ruby. The girl continued shooting until almost the last moment, then jumped to the side. Sadly, the plan didn't work properly. The bird used one of its deceptively large rear limbs to swat Ruby out of the sky. She was falling over empty space, where there was no bridge for her to land on. Weiss made a decision. Although she really didn't like Ruby, keeping everyone alive was probably a good idea. And yes, Ruby was fairly decent in a fight, so she was a valuable asset. Weiss watched Ruby's trajectory, then materialized a series of glyphs that she crossed to get to where Ruby was falling. She barely got there in time, and Ruby latched onto the heiress's arm. "Thanks," the red-tipped girl said. Unfortunately, Ruby's extra weight on her arm tipped Weiss off balance and they fell off the glyph. It was an easy fix, though: Weiss just made another glyph under them that was wide enough to keep their balance, then the two separated and hopped back up to the top of the tower on a staircase of glyphs.

Once the two were back at the central platform, they saw the bird circle back around and head toward Yang, who was still unloading rounds at it.

"I have an idea!" Ruby shouted.

"Wonderful," Weiss muttered.

"Just listen! Yang, hop onto the bird to distract it. Blake can help you steer it toward the cliff by pulling on its wings. Weiss, once it gets there, freeze it down. Blake and Yang, use the ribbon to make a bungee cord between some pillars. Then Weiss can put a propulsion glyph behind the ribbon. I'll hop on and bring the fight to it!"

There wasn't any time to disagree. It sounded a little better than just haphazardly shooting at the winged tank, and the creature was almost upon Yang. The bird opened its mouth to snap at Yang, but she jumped into its mouth and held it open with one hand while the other hand shot bullets into its throat. The bird's predatory screeches turned to pained squawks and it slowed down a bit. Blake hurled her tethered weapon at the bird's right wing. It lodged in some flesh, and the girl pulled down to make the bird turn to the right, toward the cliff. She then made the weapon shoot to separate from the bird. Now Yang was riding an airplane aimed at a stone wall. She hopped off once she was sure the bird had no chance of avoiding collision, then Weiss produced a glyph to help Yang get back to the central platform quickly as she ran toward the now-disoriented plane wreck. Weiss turned Myrtenaster's dial to blue and stabbed down at the bird's tail, freezing it to the rocks of the cliff, then glyph-propelled herself back to the central area. Blake threw Yang the pointy end of her weapon, and the two stretched the ribbon across the gap between two adjacent pillars facing the cliff, Ruby jumped sideways onto it, and Weiss put a glyph behind Ruby.

"Of course _you_ would come up with an idea as crazy as this," the heiress commented.

"Think you can make the shot?" the red girl responded, ignoring the jibe.

 _What a stupid question._ "Humph. Can I?" she retorted.

"Can-"

Weiss almost wanted to facepalm, but her hands were busy controlling the glyph's angle. "Of course I can!"

Ruby reloaded her sniper scythe, then all at once Yang and Blake pulled outward on the ribbon, straightening it, Ruby fired her scythe, propelling her away from the shot, and Weiss's glyph went off, rocketing Ruby toward the cliff and their quarry. The beast was trying to take off to get away from the dangerous projectile, but it was held fast to the rocks by Weiss's ice. The scythe's blade hooked around the bird's neck, but didn't go through the thick appendage. Weiss made a vertical series of glyphs up the cliff, along which Ruby ran by using her speed Semblance. The predator-turned-prey was dragged along the cliff until the pair got to the top. There was a slight lip at the peak of the cliff upon which the poor bird got caught. However, Ruby continued upward for a couple more glyphs, and the momentum carried the scythe's blade through the beast's neck, decapitating it. Ruby landed at the top of the cliff, and the head and body of the bird tumbled into the bottom of the crater. The girl turned around and gave a big thumbs-up and a wave of her scythe.

Weiss and the other two cheered briefly. Their enemy was eliminated, and now all they had left was to return to Beacon. Before that, though, they should probably check on the others. The heiress turned around to see how the scorpion was doing against the other four. It turned out that they were just about done, too. Nora fell through the air with her hammer and whacked down as hard as she could, with the aid of gravity, on the creature's stinger which had somehow been embedded in its head. The beast was flattened to the thickness of a high-quality mattress and was clearly dead.

Weiss heard surround-sound applause and cheering. _Why would- Oh._ Other students who had presumably gotten to the temple later were now flowing out of the tunnels onto the bridges. They had apparently seen enough to realize how impressive Weiss was. And the others weren't too horrible, she supposed.

"Hey!" called Ruby. "I can see Beacon from here! It's just that-a-way!" She pointed to her rear right angle, which was forward and left for those looking at the cliff.

"Can you help us get back across?" Pyrrha asked from behind Weiss.

"Be right there!" she responded.

She only needed five glyphs for Nikos and gang to get back to the main part of the stone structure. The seven then made their way to Ruby's cliff. Unfortunately, the rest of them didn't have Ruby's Semblance, so Weiss had to make a much longer spiral staircase of glyphs. However, it was far too long to maintain an entire staircase all at once, so the group progressed slowly along a trail of glyphs that grew at the front and shrank at the back. Once Weiss got to the top, she fell on the ground in an undignified heap, exhausted.

"I can't feel my arms," she breathed. "Or my legs..."

"Thanks for the help, guys!" Pyrrha said. Her temporary group shuffled on ahead a bit, but stayed close enough that the other four would probably be able to catch up so they could go as a larger group.

"You'd better be thankful..." she barely got out.

"Let's go, Weissy," Yang sang. "Have to get back to Beacon, and the sun says it's already mid-afternoon!"

"We should help the rest of the students get up!" Ruby said.

With as much intimidation as Weiss could muster up in her present state, she shot Ruby an icy glare and solidly stated, "No. They can climb the cliff with their bare hands for all I care. I'm done."

"Aww, Weiss..." Ruby whined. But her voice instantly shifted tones. "Yang, I'm hungry; let's get to the dining hall."

"Don't remind me, you fiend!" Weiss half-shouted.

"Come on, let's go," Blake said. She and Yang helped Weiss to her feet.

* * *

They slowly trudged off toward the distant shape of Beacon Academy.

"Nope. Nope, nope, nope. Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. Of course we're not done," Weiss muttered. Somewhere around two dozen ursai stood in their path. "You guys can fight them. I'll just tell you what to do. Yeah. That sounds good."

"Come on, Weiss, don't you want to show me how much better you are than me?" Ruby taunted.

"I can out-kill you any day!" the heiress returned.

"Prove it!"

"I will!"

Pyrrha sighed and took out her weapon in spear form. Ren unsheathed his dagger guns, and Nora took out her hammer, shouting, "Hammer time!" Blake took out her weapon as two swords. Yang loaded her gauntlets. Weiss drew her rapier and turned it to the ice cartridge. Ruby unfurled her scythe, jabbing the tip into the ground. Jaune chuckled and pretended to hold his sword in front of him, although Weiss was pretty sure she saw his pants grow a dark splotch near the center...

They leaped into action(29).

Ruby instantly shot across the forest clearing and relieved an ursa head from the burden of being attached to its body.

Weiss shot an ice ball at an ursa, which froze its head. She then thrust Myrtenaster through the frozen excuse for an appendage, shattering the object and slaying the ursa.

Blake charged at an ursa, who clawed at her. She appeared behind it with both blades protruding from its spine.

Yang ran up to an ursa, covering with gunfire, then delivered a nearly-flawless uppercut to its jaw, launching it into the air, and followed up with a two-handed downward hammering strike. The ursa's head was completely invisible and the rest of its decaying body stuck up out of the ground like a flagpole in the middle of a three foot wide crater.

Pyrrha taunted an ursa, then began dancing around it, slicing here and there and blocking any attacks with her shield. Eventually she caught it off balance with a shield bash and used the opportunity to impale it with her spear.

Nora charged an ursa with her hammer held low. Once she arrived in range, she swung upward with tremendous force, yelling, "BoOoOoooOOoOm!" (Weiss was pretty sure that was the most accurate way to spell that word.) The ursa careened upward through the canopy and was never seen again.

Ren cautiously approached an ursa. He allowed it to swipe at him, but he blocked with his blade on the mirrored side, almost severing its paw. He blocked the other paw as well, then tossed his right weapon into his sleeve and struck the ursa in the throat with an empty hand. The contents of its neck blew out the back side.

Jaune stood at the back, but an ursa came after him anyway. He screamed like a five year old girl – the proper pitch and all – and cowered under his shield. Luckily, Pyrrha had his back. She got its attention and killed it at her own pace.

Ruby turned around after she had run past the group of ursai, then ran back in the direction she came. She leaped up and swung her scythe like a hammer, impaling an ursa between the shoulder blades (and they were shoulder _blades_ ).

Weiss twirled and sliced an ursa across the throat, then continued her spin a bit farther and stepped forward once, plunging Myrtenaster into another one's chest.

Blake stepped to the side, watching in case anyone else got cornered.

Nora stood watching the treetops for any sign of her lost projectile.

Yang flared up her Semblance and gave an ursa a very hard linear punch in the sternum. It somehow left a circular scorched hole all the way through the deceased beast(30).

Ren warily circled a second ursa, shooting at it when possible and deflecting attacks that came toward him.

Jaune didn't have any visitors, so he just watched everyone else with awe.

The rest of the ursai turned and ran. Apparently they were smart enough to do so when over half of their companions were vanquished in well under a minute. Ruby caught one in the skull with a sniper round, just barely avoiding the armored plates right next to the point of impact. Its head exploded and, needless to say, the beast stopped retreating.

Not to be outdone, Weiss froze one to the ground by all four paws – it took several shots of ice – then ran up to it with the help of a propulsion glyph. She casually strolled under it and eviscerated it. Unfortunately, she didn't have all that much experience fighting real creatures to the death – she mostly trained by sparring other young warriors – so she didn't know what was to come. All of its black organs and loads of ichor spilled onto her, completely ruining her dress and hair. It was warm, even hot, and smelled like tar. Disgusting clumps stuck in her hair. But beyond the horrible sensations, she once again remembered that she was exhausted, and her rapidly trembling limbs allowed her to collapse in a vile heap onto the ground next to the slowly vanishing corpse.

"If you wanted a bath, I could've found you a waterfall or something," Yang joked, although it was not funny in the least to Weiss.

"Quiet, dunce! I'll never talk to you again!" Weiss scolded from her rather cozy place on the twigs and leaves. At least the loose stuff on the ground protected her spasming arms from hurting themselves.

"Oh yes you will," Yang taunted, half-laughing. "Come on; you're exhausted and we need to get out of here." She grabbed the heiress by the waist and hoisted her over her right shoulder.

"Put me down, you animal! I can walk by myself!" She swung her fists as hard as she could at Yang's back, but in her present state she probably wouldn't be able to kill an ant. _These people are worse than the suitors Father insisted on inviting to the mansion!_

Yang laughed, "Called it."

It was a very long journey the rest of the way back to Beacon.

* * *

 _Great._ The heiress must have fallen asleep along the journey, and apparently she hadn't missed much of anything too important, like a battle, though she really didn't trust any of her companions. She knew she was awake now, and knew she wasn't a moment before, because she felt some new sensations. The heiress opened her eyes, only to close them again then open them more slowly. The sun was beginning to descend in the sky, and she had looked directly at it at first. Now that she could see, she noticed that Wonder Child was holding her left shoulder and upper back, Impractical Joke _(Ooh, that's a good one.)_ had her right shoulder and lower back, and Ribbons was holding Weiss's knees under her right arm. It was rather relaxing, and nice. So proper. She was a Schnee; she _should_ get special attention.

But they were in public, and these were strangers! Strangers whom she hated! "Let go of me, you indecent velociraptors!"

Blake dropped her legs immediately as though they were red-hot lumps of metal, and Ruby and Yang pushed her forward so she was standing above her feet. To the heiress's surprise, she was able to stand. "How long have I been out?" she asked in an uncharacteristically calm voice.

"Only two days," Yang responded smoothly. "Ozpin told us to go training by lugging you around the forest."

Weiss gasped and her eyes widened before her brain could catch up and decide that was almost impossible. Then her brow furrowed in anger. "That's not funny!"

"Maybe two hours," Ruby said. "There haven't been any more Grimm. Pyrrha and the others went on ahead. See, it's the cliff right over there."

Weiss turned around and ran into Blake, who had apparently been standing behind her left shoulder to listen to the conversation, but was clearly too close. "Personal space!" The other girl mumbled something incomprehensible and turned away. Sure enough, the northeast Beacon Cliff was right there, probably thirty meters away. "Let me guess: You want us to climb this thing. Well I'm not helping."

"Nope!" Ruby chirped. "We can just walk around it! There are actually much shallower slopes to either side."

The heiress was relieved, but kept her facial expression neutral. "Okay. We can do this." She felt something tickling her elbow and slapped away the offending limb. "Hands off, Yang!"

"You're welcome."

"Ugh!... Whoa, my clothes are clean. Did you guys-?"

"Don't you know? Dead Grimm parts dissolve into the air after a while," Ruby explained.

"Oh. Right."

"You still _smell_ funny," Yang interjected.

Fortunately, the conversation ended there and they easily made their way around the cliff to a waiting Ozpin and Goodwitch. "Good, good," the headmaster began. "You're some of the first ones to return. Now, let's see your relics."

Ruby stepped up to Ozpin first, digging a red knight out of her hood. "Here ya go." Ozpin took the object and nodded, then put it in a bag Goodwitch was holding.

Yang stepped up next, reaching into her jacket – Weiss turned away with her face burning – and handed over her relic. "One yellow pony for you, Prof." The heiress figured it was safe to look now. Ozpin sighed and gingerly grabbed the object between his thumb and index finger, then handed it to Goodwitch, who almost dropped it in surprise. She got it into the bag without any further trouble.

Blake was next. Her relic was stuck onto the magnetic back strip that held her weapon. Apparently there was metal inside the chess piece. She put the black knight directly into Glynda – _Stop, Weiss, she's just Goodwitch; no first names_ – Goodwitch's pouch.

"Um..." Weiss fidgeted. "Can you please not look? I have pockets inside my combat skirt... I usually don't need them so it's never been an issue..." To Weiss's surprise, everyone complied immediately and she removed the white knight from its safe spot. "Okay, here's my relic, Professor," she finished, handing him the small object.

"Good. You four may head to the dining hall for supper. I'm sure you're hungry after a day such as this. Just be sure to get to the amphitheater by eight o' clock for the announcement of teams. That's–" he looked at his watch – "an hour and fifty three minutes from now."

The four nodded and headed back toward Beacon.

"So whose team do you think I'll be on?" Ruby asked. "Ozpin didn't say anything about our in-pomp-you group."

"Impromptu," Yang corrected. Weiss was trying to get away from them, so she didn't bother saying anything herself. _I sure hope I don't get stuck with any of these four,_ she thought to herself.

The heiress managed to lose them, or so she thought. Ruby zoomed in front of Weiss, almost tripping her. "Hey! You're not getting away that easily, Weiss! You're our friend now."

 _Friend. I've never really had one of those. I sure hope this isn't what it's supposed to feel like to have a friend. I'm already losing my mind and it's only been about twenty-four hours._

"Earth to Weiss! You're spacing out here!" Ruby screamed in her ear. Weiss stumbled away holding the permanently damaged organ with a hand.

"I just want to be alone for a while, okay, Ruby?"

Ruby almost looked like she was going to say something, but then her face turned dour and she slumped her shoulders and sighed. The caped girl turned and slowly tromped away. Weiss almost felt sorry for the girl, but restrained herself from doing anything stupid. She continued to the dining hall on her own, stopping at a restroom along the way(31).

* * *

There really weren't any options this time around. There was broccoli, which she took _(It's good for my image)_ , and then two piles of breaded boneless chicken wings. Those were a rather low-key food, so it wasn't something the heiress was accustomed to eating. The piles looked about the same, so she shrugged and took from the pile on the right. Then she grabbed a fork, decided against needing a knife, and snatched a bottle of skim milk from a refrigerator.

As Weiss came out of the food area, she spotted an empty booth in the corner of the room. She strolled over to it then sat down, starting with her broccoli. The vegetables were lightly buttered, but they were not cooked uniformly. Some were still really crunchy, while others were piles of mush. A few turned out to be okay, though.

"Sorry; I should probably leave you alone," came a voice next to Weiss. Blake had apparently been sitting in the corner booth the whole time, somehow staying in the shadows well enough that the heiress hadn't noticed her earlier. The girl slid around to the other exit of the seat and walked away with her tray.

As Weiss was watching the relieving yet disconcerting scene _(Good, she should leave. But how did I not see her earlier?)_ , she saw Ruby in the distance waving at her. But Ruby's memory kicked in and she stopped midway through a wave, then looked down with a pitiable expression.

The heiress turned back to her meal. The broccoli was gone. Now for the wings. She jabbed a morsel with her fork and bit off half of it. It was spicy! Now that she thought about it, the piles were slightly different colors. She'd taken from the somewhat orange pile rather than the completely brown pile. But... the girl didn't hate it(32)?

 _What!? Why don't I hate it? Spicy food is supposed to be bad! It's undignified, and messy, and encourages improper manners. But I... like it. No, no; that can't be right. I'm not allowed to like spicy food. But Weiss, it's so good. Voices, stop! Okay, let's get things straight. What do we know? I've never had anything spicy before and I was taught that it's bad. Now I ended up accidentally trying it, and I don't want to spit it out; in fact, I sort of want another. So I guess... Yeah, I like it. … Father doesn't ever need to find out._

Succumbing to the power of the food, Weiss devoured the rest of her meal a bit faster than she usually finished any food. She even chugged her milk, which caused her to belch. Luckily, she was ninety-nine point nine percent positive that nobody had seen or heard it, as she was tucked into the shady corner of the booth with magical concealing properties and nobody was looking at her.

An evil grin crept onto Weiss's face. _Muahahahaha! Darn it; I used that laugh again..._ The girl facepalmed. _Well, what time is it?_ Weiss spotted a clock across the room that read 6:40. _Okay. Well, I could go clean Myrtenaster. I'm sure she's not too happy with her treatment today. To the lockers... which are just on the other side of the dormitory._

* * *

 _Seven-forty. Myrtenaster is looking pretty good; I suppose I could head to the amphitheater now,_ Weiss thought as she looked at a clock. She got up from the bench she had been using during the cleaning of her weapon and set off for the large glass-domed building.

Seven minutes later, Weiss Schnee stood in the third row of the ground level of the building. The front few rows on the ground level were reserved for new students, while upper-classmen stood behind them or sat in the stands above. The white-haired girl was rather nervous _(Who knows who I'll get as teammates?)_ , but kept her composure easily. She had been in far more serious situations before.

Members of the crowd were chatting loudly during their wait. The heiress thought she was developing a headache. _Maybe I should have waited a bit longer before coming here,_ she considered. It felt like an eternity as she waited, but once Professor Ozpin walked onto the stage and the crowd's volume declined, it really did feel like it had only been a thirteen minute wait.

Lie Ren, who stood to the girl's left, was doing his best to hush Nora, who was on the other side of the boy. Weiss was thankful that he seemed to be a somewhat reasonable person. Maybe it wouldn't be too bad to be on his team. But Pyrrha was still the person for whom she was hoping.

To Weiss's right was a fairly tall boy with short brown hair, peaked at the front, who was wearing many plates of armor. He was being a bit quieter than before, but he was still whispering with his friends.

"Let's begin," began the headmaster. "Today, we celebrate the official welcoming of this next year's students. They have mostly" – this last word disconcerted Weiss – "gone through years of rigorous training to qualify for a position in our Academy, and today they have completed the initiation. During this ceremony tonight, the new teams will be declared. Let us give a round of applause for our newest recruits."

The crowd eagerly followed Ozpin's request, although Weiss certainly kept her applause polite, unlike the brown-haired brute to her right.

"As a reminder, Professor Goodwitch will assign your new room numbers and distribute your Scrolls(33) at the side door once you have your teams. Moving along, the first team will consist of Russel Thrush, Cardin Winchester, Dove Bronzewing, and Sky Lark. Please come to the stage." The rude metal-clad pig to her right pushed past her to get to the stage. Wonderful. She'd probably learn to hate that team more than she did from these first impressions. "The four of you retrieved relics from the forest, mostly bishop and pawn pieces. The system's algorithm(34) has determined that based on your initial pairings, your performance, and the pieces you collected, you will be the first team in this new class. From this day forward, you will work together as Team CRDL," which he pronounced as Cardinal, but the screen displayed the title as those four letters, "lead by Cardin Winchester." The audience applauded, but Weiss barely touched her hands together. It was just enough to trick the others into thinking she actually approved of them. "Please return to your seats."

"The second team: Jaune Arc, Lie Ren, Nora Valkyrie, and Pyrrha Nikos" – Weiss almost fainted on the spot. _I'm not on her team! This is an outrage!_ – "please step forward."

The pair to Weiss's left rose and headed to the stage, with Ren walking respectfully and Nora skipping and singing a simple tune, "I'm queen of the castle! I'm queen of the castle!"

"These four worked together to bring down a deathstalker during the initiation," the headmaster continued, gesturing for applause. "You retrieved primarily rooks and bishops, and the system has computed that you will be this class's second team." This just reminded Weiss that _she_ was not on Pyrrha's. "Starting today, you will be united under the name Team JNPR," which he pronounced as Juniper, "lead by Jaune Arc."

"Huh? L-lead by?" the boy questioned.

"Congratulations, young man," Ozpin answered. "You had the crimson bishop, and those are seeded to be more likely to get the leader position, although that's hardly the only thing taken into consideration. You have great potential," he added more quietly, but Weiss was able to make it out. _Great. My piece was white. So I'm not with Pyrrha, and I probably won't even lead my own team._ "You are dismissed," Ozpin finished.

"Now for our third team. Blake Belladonna, Ruby Rose, Yang Xiao Long, and Weiss Schnee," – _Great._ – "please present yourselves at the stage."

Weiss forced herself to walk as calmly as possible to the stage. She even plastered a large smile across her face. _Hopefully they're happy,_ she thought. She lined up between Ruby and Blake, and noticed her hands were clenched and shaking with rage. Hopefully that wasn't too visible.

"The four of you retrieved the four colors of knights – the best match we had. Now I have a few other things to add as well. The tracking cameras informed us that these four all quite literally collided with each other within a half second interval. This had quite the substantial effect on the seed. In addition, these four worked together to bring down a giant nevermore by acting as a human slingshot. It's quite the impressive battle if I do say so myself; I've posted it on YeTubbe for anyone who is interested." The heiress could feel her face heat up. "They were also the first to reach the forest temple. Beginning today, you will be known as Team RWBY," – which he pronounced as Ruby – "lead by Ruby Rose."

Weiss's face grew even more red, but she couldn't make a spectacle in front of the entire school, so she held back her anger.

"I'm so proud of you, Rubes!" Yang shouted, loud enough for the whole school to hear, as she glomped her sister.

"Looks like things are shaping up to be an... interesting year," Ozpin concluded. "Please return to your seats. Now for the next team..."

Weiss didn't hear another word the man said. She sneaked out to a small doorway in an obscure corner of the amphitheater and sat down on the floor between the sets of doors and allowed the tears to fall. _Maybe Father was right. Maybe coming to Beacon wasn't as good an idea as I thought. Maybe I would be happier if I had just eased into leading the company and taken one of those snotty goons as a husband. This... This sucks. Everything is going wrong._ The heiress heard feet pounding the floor to leave the building from other doors, but this one was safe since it was on the southeast side of the building, far away from the exits that lead to the ballroom and dorms.

She heard the door open: It was Ozpin. "Miss Schnee, is something wrong?"

The girl hastily wiped away her tears and sat up straight, looking up at the man. "No; nothing," she answered.

"You seem to be crying, Weiss."

"No, sir; it's just your imagination. A Schnee never cries."

"Weiss, you don't need to lie to yourself and to your authorities. I know you're distraught over the team selections, but I have never seen the algorithm make a mistake. Every team I've graduated since I first became headmaster worked together wonderfully, and the vast majority even stayed together as a team of hunters, carrying out missions as a group, after they left the Academy. I know it may be hard for you to adjust now, but these three will be your best friends for a very long time."

The heiress sat silently. She _hoped_ that what he was saying could turn out to be true, but right now it really didn't feel like that was possible.

"Take this," Ozpin said, setting a Scroll on the floor next to her. "And your room number is four-thirteen. The Scroll is your key. I suggest you move your belongings soon; classes start tomorrow, after all. And a Schnee doesn't miss class or get failing grades, I presume."

Weiss couldn't deny anything the Professor said. The speech didn't make her feel any better about her situation, but she was motivated to get off the floor, pick up her new Scroll, and head off to her new living quarters.

* * *

Things were going decently for one Weiss Schnee. The luggage cart and all her belongings were still in the ballroom when she arrived, and there were no interruptions between the ballroom and the dormitory. The only slightly annoying part about the ordeal was waiting for an elevator.

The heiress found the door labeled '413' and dug her scroll out of her Dust pouch's belt(35). The lock deactivated with a satisfying click, and Weiss grabbed the doorknob to enter. However, it only moved about a millimeter. But it was unlocked! It clicked, and the light was green and everything.

"Excuse me. Is anyone in there?" she called through the door.

The response was not what she expected. "What's the password?" It was Ruby's voice.

"Seriously?!"

"Nope!"

 _Okay. Pretending to want a password for five seconds and then just letting me in anyway is a really strange game to play._ "Good. Thanks."

"Nope!"

 _Oh. Nope, that's not the password. Mental sigh._ "What's your problem, Ruby? Just let me in!"

"Nope!"

"I don't know what the password is, okay? You never told me, so how am I supposed to know? Are you going to give me a hint?"

The pause was a bit longer, but the answer was just as short. "Nope!"

"Team RWBY?"

"Nope!"

"Ruby is a dolt?"

"Nope!"

"Look; I don't know what I did to deserve this, but I'm sorry. I just want to get in."

Finally, the answer was different. "Do you really mean it?"

"I don't know! What did I do?"

"Everything."

"Ruby, I'm not sorry for being who I am, and I'm not sorry that you're an insufferable brat. But I think it _would_ be in our best interests to try to get along since we're going to be stuck together for four years. I'm sorry for any headaches I've caused you over the last two days, but I wish you were just as sorry for all you've done to me."

"... Okay. I'm sorry, too, Weiss; you can come in now."

The heiress reached for the doorknob, but it was locked again. It must be on a timer... She got her scroll out again, unlocked the door, and swung it open.

There were four beds pushed as far to the back wall as they could be, but the room wasn't wide enough for them all. Three piles of _stuff_ dominated a decent portion of the remainder of the floor space, and Ruby, Blake, and Yang were rifling through them.

"Ew. You still stink like Grimm," Yang let out.

"Would it kill you to shut up for five minutes?" the heiress responded.

"We have our own bathroom right over there if you want to not stink?" Yang cautiously questioned as she gestured toward the wall to the left of the entrance where Weiss spotted another door(36).

Weiss's eyes lit up. She hurriedly pulled the luggage cart into her new room, leaned Myrtenaster against it, yanked a briefcase out of the pile, and rushed to the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. The room ran parallel to the outside hallway rather than along the length of their living quarters, and there was likely a bathroom for the neighboring dorm on the outside wall side. There was a good-sized counter and sink along the hallway side, the toilet was next to that in the same orientation, and past both was the bathtub/shower combination, the gold to Weiss's eyes. Scanning over these things only took about two seconds, and then Weiss remembered her purpose. She slammed the briefcase down on the counter. _Shampoo: Check._ That was flung into the tub. _Conditioner: Check._ Same. _And soap: Check._ That hit its mark as well. _Clothes: Un-check. Curtain closed: Check. Water: Check. Yessssssss._

Once Weiss finished, she realized she'd forgotten something. Some things, actually. _… Towel and new clothes. There is no way that I'm stuffing my old clothes on, especially when I'm wet. Things like this didn't happen at home with my own bathroom and everything in its proper place... So. I suppose Weiss Schnee has to ask for help. How far I've fallen_ (37).

"Um, guys?" she tried. After several minutes without a response, she was beginning to get cold. They probably didn't hear; it was rather foolish to expect such a weak attempt to work. "Guys! Help!" The heiress waited several more minutes, but there still wasn't any response. " _Help!_ "

Finally, the door clicked open. "Yo, why are you screaming in the shower?" Yang asked. Fortunately, she didn't poke her head through the door, although there _was_ a curtain in the way anyway.

"I... I need some help..."

"Whoa, I didn't know you were into that!"

"Yang! No! I just was in such a rush that I forgot a towel and clothes. First and second cases in the second column."

"W-well, you see, there's sort of a problem with that..."

"You seriously spilled my stuff on the floor?"

"Nah, just kidding. Will do, kiddo."

A few seconds later, she could hear the chanting of, "Rock, paper, scissors! Rock, paper, scissors! Rock, paper scissors!"

"H-hey, Weiss," came Ruby's voice. "I'll just set these next to the shower, okay?"

"Yes! That's fine, but get out of here." She heard feet walking, then two gentle thuds, then more walking, and then the click of the door. _That actually went better than expected. Now for the moment of truth._ She opened the curtain a bit and opened the nearest briefcase. To her surprise, they had actually taken the right ones. _A towel! Salvation!_

Once Weiss was once again decent, she cleaned up a bit, composed herself, and headed back to the main room with her dirty clothes in a wad. The lump of cloth was immediately deposited in a pop-up hamper that came out of another briefcase.

The others were staring. "Does privacy mean anything to you? I don't need your looks."

Unfortunately, that was cannon fodder for Yang. "I'm pretty sure _nobody_ can live without my looks around. You like?"

"Shut up, Xiao Long."

"You only told me five minutes, and it's been twenty."

"You know that's not what I meant!"

Ruby supported Weiss. "Yang, please? We're a team now. You can't be mean to your team." Yang rolled her eyes and kept her mouth closed, so Ruby moved on. "How about we get to know each other a bit? We already know each other's names, so how about weapons?"

"Yep, Ruby and her weapons," Yang muttered. "These are Ember Celica, my Dual Ranged Shot-Gauntlets," she continued, holding up her wrists. "They're stored as bracelets, like so. But I can activate them and make them into gauntlets by flowing a bit of Aura into them. See?" They extended to cover most of her forearms and fists. "I probably shouldn't trash the room, but they can shoot twelve rounds before I have to reload. Next?"

"Ooh, ooh, ooh! Guys, you've already seen her, but this is Crescent Rose." Ruby unfurled the weapon and characteristically slammed it into the ground. Unfortunately, this was not earth or stone, but their floor. "Hehehe... Oops."

"You dolt! You're paying the damages."

Ruby gingerly picked her weapon out of the floor. "It's only a little hole. See? I can't even fit my hand through."

"I _refuse_ to live in these conditions."

"U-um... Well, it's too late. Let's worry about that tomorrow." Ruby received a frosty glare from Weiss, but she continued speaking anyway. "Crescent Rose is a High-Caliber Sniper Scythe. My Uncle Qrow is the only other person I know of who has one. She's my sweetheart. Usually she's even a better friend than Yang."

"Hey!"

"She has the scythe mode, and that lets me plant... her... in... the... ground... Hehehe. And then she's more stable so it's easier for sniping. I can also press this button to swing the scythe head out so it faces sideways. Sometimes that's useful. And then she can partially fold up like this," – it compacted itself, hiding the scythe blade, but was still slightly extended with a shoulder rest and some grips – "so that she's more portable if I need to run and gun. And finally, she can fold up even more so I can carry her around on my magnetic belt harness. Who's next? I love weapons," she gushed.

"Okay, fine," Blake responded calmly. "Well as you can see," – she turned around so her back faced the others – "I have a magnetic shoulder pad to hold Gambol Shroud. It's what I call a Variant Ballistic Chain Scythe. I can either take it off whole so it's a cleaver, better for seriously injuring a target with slashes," – she removed the entire weapon from the magnetic strip and held it out – "or I can just take out the core, the katana part." She put the weapon back on the magnet and grabbed lower on the hilt so only the inner section was removed. "This form allows me to stab things with it, although it's also better at precision cuts. I can also use the sheath as a second weapon." She took out the sheath and held it in her left hand, then put it back. "The katana can fold down into a pistol along two joints." She demonstrated the capability and held the gun in her hand. "It doesn't use any bullets, just Aura. The ribbon on the end can be used as a leash so I can throw it, and then either shoot things at odd angles or propel the blade on the pistol using the recoil. Sometimes both."

Weiss picked up Myrtenaster from its resting place and held the weapon aloft. "This is Myrtenaster. She's not just a sword; she's a Multi-Action Dust Rapier," the heiress lectured. "She may not be as mechanical and weird as yours, but she does have plenty of tricks. The Dust chamber has six slots, for red, blue, yellow, white, cyan, and violet, but I usually use the first three. It turns with a dial and then I can shoot Dust balls by pulling the trigger or it can just leak out when I use my Aura to either coat the blade or to imbue my glyphs. When I need to refill, it pops open on a hinge and then I can add a new cartridge. And don't forget that she's a rapier. It's a bit longer than a lot of kinds of swords, so the extra reach helps stab my enemies easier. Most rapiers are very flexible to help them withstand impacts, but Myrtenaster doesn't need to be. She's made of carbon nanotubes for the strength, and although those are flexible, the central bundle is coated with a relatively thick layer of specialized metal. The metal is not very flexible, but it's so strong that it's almost impossible for her to break. Plus the point is easy to keep really sharp, so the springiness isn't needed to drive her into a target,"(38).

"I still like mine the best," boasted Yang. "So, Ruby, Missus _team leader_ , any other ideas?"

"Well, we sorta need to... unpack. And organize."

Reluctantly at first, the team set about claiming their own sectors of the room with decorations, shelves, and the like. Weiss put up a nice painting of Forever Fall forest and set up her school-issued desk and dresser with the necessary items. She also arranged the rest of her toiletries a bit better. That was about all Weiss needed to do.

The others took a bit longer. Ruby messed with the window curtain, using her scythe to butcher the poor thing; Yang had posters upon posters plus stacks of magazines; and Blake had way more books than the rest of the team combined.

"Hmm. I wonder what we should do with the beds," Ruby questioned. "If we just lay them side by side, there might be enough room, but it would be really cramped."

It was a valid argument. The beds were currently in a pile next to the 'remodeled' window, and they'd need the them for sleeping. The clock read 10:24; it had been a really long day, so they should probably head to bed as soon as they could. But as to answering Ruby's question, the heiress didn't have any novel ideas. She never had a space problem at home.

"Ooh!" Ruby squealed. "I know! We can _get rid of_ the beds..."

"That's not exactly my kind of idea, Rubes."

"Shush! And replace them with _bunk beds!_ "

"But," Weiss objected, "these aren't even built to be loftable. How do you propose we do that? Ask for different beds? The service people are probably asleep right now, like we should be."

"Oh, that's easy," said Ruby. "I have some rope here – never know when you'll need the stuff, my uncle always tells me." She held up a gigantic wad of the stuff.

"That sounds incredibly dangerous," Weiss lectured.

"And super awesome!" Yang added.

"I'm sure it could work," Blake confessed.

"Well... We should put it to a vote," requested Weiss. It was her last chance.

"We already did," said Ruby, "and it's three to one! C'mon, Weiss, let's do this!"

She reluctantly accepted her fate. They started with the rear left corner of the room. First, one bed was shoved all the way into the corner, which was simple with the four of them, but then came the hard part.

"Okay, I'll hold the bed," Yang said. "You three bring it over here, and I'll prop it up so you guys can tie it to the ceiling."

"Wait," said Ruby. "If we have to tie it up, we'll need some room to move around on the wall side. Let's move that one away from the wall a bit."

Once that simple task was finished, Yang laid on the repositioned bed and other three brought a second one over. It was a struggle to hoist it up to Yang's level, but they eventually made it. Yang showed off a bit, pumping the bed up and down as if she were weight lifting... which she was, in a way.

"I'm the smallest!" Ruby called.

"That's because you're under-age," stung Weiss.

"Weiss, it doesn't matter. I'm not leaving Beacon. But right now we have to get this bed tied up, and since I'm the smallest I'll need a boost."

"Couldn't we just use a table?" suggested Blake.

"Oh yeah; sure." Ruby pulled an empty desk over – the one that the cape-wearer claimed for herself – and stood on it. "Aww... I'm still not tall enough. You two need to come up here and lift me up." Weiss glared in return. How horribly unsafe! "Just do it!"

"Fine," the heiress succumbed.

Blake and Weiss climbed onto the desk to either side of Ruby and each grabbed one of the girl's ankles and knees. Ruby held onto their shoulders and sat on their forearms. "Annnnnd... up!" their leader commanded. They got her up to waist height, which ended up being close enough to the ceiling that they didn't have to readjust to get her higher. However, it still wasn't very stable.

"Hurry up, Ruby," Weiss requested.

"I'm trying! Just have to reach my drill..."

"Since when did you have a drill?!"

"Just let me work, Weiss. You're not helping."

"I _am_ helping."

"Guys," Yang interrupted, "go have a fist fight outside afterward or something, but I'd prefer to not stay in this position all night."

White and red sighed. Ruby tapped on the ceiling until she found a stud, then pulled a drill off of her back magnet and made a hole there. She then squirted some cheap elementary school art glue into the hole and hammered a threaded bushing into it. Where she got these objects, Weiss did not know. Then she took a loop-ended bolt off from her magnet and screwed it into the bushing. A section of rope was threaded through the loop and tied off with a slight dangling end (Ruby laughed mischievously at the addition of this tail), and the long end was looped around the headboard of the bed several times then tied off with about two meters of excess(39).

"Next! Let's get the back on this side," Ruby instructed.

The three-piece miniature human pyramid disassembled, moved the desk backward, then reassembled. Ruby once again drilled a hole, added glue, inserted a threaded bushing, screwed in a looped bolt, and strung a rope through. It once again was tied off with a tail to it and Ruby giggled. She tied this rope around the footboard a few times, but it was too short to leave a long tail and she just tied it off and tucked in the nub at the end.

But then Ruby drilled another hole, this one in the wall. She went through all the mounting steps, then threw the rope under the bed to lay across the one Yang was laying upon. "Okay guys, down."

Weiss let out a breath she didn't realize she had been holding. Ruby stood on the lower bed and reached up, throwing the rope over the upper bed several times. For some reason she was tying the frame to the mattress and covers, but Weiss didn't feel like complaining. Maybe Ruby could have the piece of patchwork... The girl left plenty of excess rope here as well.

"Other side," Ruby chirped.

The trio picked up their rig and moved to the center of the room. First was the foot of the bed. They assembled their height amplification structure, then Ruby set up a fixture in the ceiling. She snatched the long dangling end of rope that had been wrapped around the foot of the bed from the other side, then strung that up to the newest fixture. It once again had a tail almost a meter long, and Ruby once again snickered.

"Okay, guys, last corner. Yang, you can probably stop holding it now; there are three points secured."

The blonde exhaled sharply and dropped her hands to her side. To Weiss's great amazement, the bed stayed.

"But I can't sleep on that as it is now. We have to secure the last corner," Ruby added.

 _Well,_ Weiss thought, _at least she seems to be advocating the idea that I will_ not _be sleeping on that disaster._ The group moved the table once again. This time, a fixture was used to attach the long dangling end from the first rope to this side of the ceiling, forming a rough V shape. But Ruby had one more rope and was determined to use it. She added another fixture slightly closer to the bathroom-side wall and tied this to the corner post of the bed.

"Okay, almost done!" Ruby cheered. "Now for the canopy!"

"Canopy? Are you serious? That is _not_ necessary, Ruby," Weiss retorted.

"I don't get a canopy, I don't let you sleep tonight. Capisce?"

"Okay. Fine. You win this time, Ruby Rose."

They went around the four corners of the bed tying a sheet up with the dangling ends of rope Ruby had mischievously left earlier.

"Now for the other bed!" the leader exclaimed. "But wait," she mumbled, "I don't have any more rope..." The girl's expression completed its u-turn as she triumphantly shouted, "Blake has spare books!"

"Hey! You can't just take my stuff! What if I want to read those ones?"

"Well we can always trade them out if someone holds the bed for a while. Did you bring any that you've already finished though?"

"Yeah... I suppose. But _I'll_ pick them, okay?" The black-haired girl walked around the room, picking a book off a shelf here and there, until she had four piles of equal height, each about ten high. In the meantime, Weiss and the sisters pushed a bed to the rear right corner of the room, leaving a bit of walking space.

"I don't know how well they'll balance, so everyone take a stack," Anti-Schnee continued, handing everyone a stack.

It worked significantly more easily than expected. There was now a decent spacing so when the second bed was added, the person who slept underneath wouldn't need to worry about hitting her head.

The group now lifted the final bed. As the shortest ones, Weiss and Ruby were on the wall side. They had to climb on top of the bottom bed while holding the upper one high enough to not collide with the books. Yang and Blake were tall enough that the bed's angle didn't cause as much trouble as it would have had the positions been switched. Then yellow and black also stepped onto the lower bed. The four repositioned themselves to be completely under the upper sleeping slab rather than at its edge, and then they were able to all slowly crouch down, lowering the upper bed's legs onto the centers of the book stacks. It balanced and miraculously stayed.

Everyone sighed and collapsed.

"What an evening," Yang mumbled. "Okay, guys, I'm going to bed."

"I call the awesome rope-y one!" said the leader.

"I call top on the other side, then," said Yang. "I always like to be on top, if you know what I mean." She wiggled her eyebrows, and Weiss had to turn her reddened face away.

"I'd like to watch over my books," Blake added.

"Fine; I can take the lower left one," Weiss conceded. "But I call first use of the toilet."

The others really didn't have much of a reason to disagree, so they nodded or shrugged. As the heiress used the throne(40), the others brushed their teeth. Weiss finished and the others rid themselves of the remains of their toothpaste. The rest took turns emptying their bladders, with some face washing in between, then everyone hopped into their pajamas (Weiss hid in the bathroom) and into their beds. Blake was the last one to bed, and flicked the lights off(41).

Weiss waited until everyone else had the steady breathing that signified sleep, then quietly sneaked out from under her covers. She found the suitcase she was looking for and opened it, removing a certain object and returning to bed.

 _What a day it's been. Goodnight, Mr. Fluffschnee_ (42).

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

(1) SDC: Schnee Dust Company. Should be fairly obvious. I don't feel that it needs to be written out completely every time, and the acronym should be familiar in Weiss's thoughts.

(2) Winter can't be the heiress: I have theories. Those may be proven wrong in Volume 3, but until then, I'll keep them. They'll come later in the story.

(3) to the south of Beacon's main gate: I don't think the orientation is ever described, but judging by Torchwick's map at the end of Episode 8, Beacon is east of Vale. The main entrance, however, is on the water side of Beacon, which seems to be south. Well, it's either north or south, since the river(?) by the cliff runs east to west based on Torchwick's map, but Ozpin tells the students to go to the northern end of the forest and they're not launched across the water, so this is obviously not the same cliff as that touching the water and it is obviously at the northern end of Beacon. Actually, the river sort of cuts off... so it could be an ocean bay on a stick. Anyway, since I thought Weiss would probably come on a private jet, that would mean she would land somewhere other than where the mass transport airships did. Vale is west, the waterside cliff is possibly south, and the the buildings are north, so east would be an available direction for something. The paths leading to Beacon intersect in a plus shape, so there is a path that goes that way. The forest is also that direction, but it's possible that the forest starts a little farther from the water-side cliff.

(4) "The heiress pulled the luggage cart with her right hand": There are servants in canon, but I wanted Weiss to more fully separate from her family when she came to Beacon. Plus time scales and travel logistics are not explained at all. I don't know where the servants went afterward, and I wanted to give Weiss more to do. The servants basically only give Weiss the opportunity to stomp off alone, and I really don't see a point. They are never mentioned again. Also! Right hand, because her left hand is doing the important stuff – groping her face – since she's officially left-handed.

(5) Christmas tree: Nobody mentioned Christmas in canon, but it's one of the better similes I could think of. Even if it doesn't exist on Remnant, we'll just pretend that the comparison still does.

(6) "No.": Usually, a comma is used inside a quotation if the sentence continues after the dialogue, but the period here is used for emphasis. (It's normal for question marks and exclamation points to stay instead of being replaced by a comma, but not for periods.) It's a _final_ no, not a drawn-out or trailing-off one.

(7) "and hopefully a few steps after that. It would be nice if you'd all last at least a few weeks before you're put out of commission.": The rest of the speech is almost copy-pasted, but I felt like adding this to supplement the wonderful mood set by Ozpin's speech. That speech was gloriously unmotivational.

(8) "free time – a very foreign concept": Also a fairly foreign concept for basically every writer. Heh. I guess that works in more than one way. It does take a while to plan and write stuff that's actually good. What I originally meant, though, is that time jumps in stories are rarely done well. They may delay conflicts that probably should have happened earlier (like Jaunedice, which apparently is a couple of _weeks_ into the semester). Some things are just too boring to write about, like "They just had regular school, learned stuff, did homework, had tests, kept themselves alive, and filled in the rest of the time with some sort of leisure," yet that can sometimes be written to be interesting, too.

(9) (descriptions): Nora and Ren.

(10) If anyone reading this is actually an expert at weapon cleaning and repairs and you care to give some better descriptions, go ahead. But that's highly unlikely, so just bear with my vague, possibly inaccurate descriptions.

(11) Shi-nee toothpaste: Canon.

(12) barely a reason at all: Please see the sarcasm in that sentence. It's just Weiss's arrogant thoughts, not omniscient narration. There are plenty of other instances of the narration spewing blatant lies, and it's all because Weiss doesn't know everything and likes denying some truths.

(13) tested: Don't ask how one would go about testing something like that. It's probably not quite literal. I should know about what I'm writing, but in this case I don't. Just seemed like a decent idea.

(14) dining hall is north: There's basically zero information on the relative locations of buildings, so I made a map. EDIT: Completely redid my maps and standardized directions and travel times. The air docks are at the very south, along the cliff that overlooks the river, which I believe is south of Beacon. A path leads from there toward Beacon, but splits off to the west and east. It leads through the two weird circular wall things that surround the park in front of Beacon, where the statue is. The path ends at a gatehouse thing, which is connected to a wall that surrounds all of the rest of Beacon. Farthest south, though with some gardens in between, is the amphitheater for duels and announcements. North of that, with a bridge in the air and a path on the ground connecting them, is the tower, which officially (according to a facebook Q&A) has the CCT in the lower floors and Ozpin's office (I say all administrative offices) in the upper floors. I also decided that the tower contains a hospital. East of the path between the tower and amphitheater is the library. North of that, sort of in line with the tower, are apartments for the professors, although there are some other buildings in between. The rest of the eastern half of campus is random lecture halls and other buildings that I may eventually decide on. There are also a few buildings north of the tower, but not very many. To the southeast and southwest of the tower are a bunch of gardens (inspired by the first day of class episode). The dorms are in the northwest corner of campus, with the locker room attached to it to the east. Just south of the dorm, which is really large, is the dining hall. There are a bunch of random buildings that fill in gaps, except the ballroom is in the southwest of the amphitheater and the training arena building/gym is located just northwest of that. Amity Colosseum, the location of the Vytal Tournament matches, can actually fly, according to Volume 3 World of Remnant 1. So it doesn't have a location on the Beacon grounds. It looks like it actually flies over the giant river south of Beacon. The Emerald Forest is north, northeast, and east of Beacon, while there are mountains to the northwest – between Beacon and Vale. (In Volume 2 when Ruby talks to Penny, I am completely sure that there is no way they _ran_ to Vale. It's WAY too far.) Vale is definitely to the west of Beacon, and lays along the coast. North of Vale, perhaps north of Beacon past the mountains, is Forever Fall Forest. Please find yourself the good terrain map of Remnant. Vale is on the big square-ish peninsula on the northwest side of the big banana-shaped continent.

(15)(a) I'm assuming they don't pay for food or scan any cards. It's provided by Beacon. Nobody ever mentions money when talking about the school, so I think it's possible that the school is free and gets support from current hunters and huntresses and Vale's government. The students just have to pass the qualifications and they can get in. This also explains why Blake would be able to attend, unless she stole several years' worth of tuition from the White Fang when she left them. Spoiler alert: I developed some more Blake going to Beacon details that will be coming sometime in the not-too-near future. It won't account for money, though.  
(b) Also, you'll notice that my description of the dining hall doesn't exactly match the one in Volume 2 Episode 1 (or even earlier episodes, although V2E1 has the clearest views of it). This is because their food miraculously appears, and I wanted to explain that. Therefore, you get a different cafeteria, rather than a separate food distribution building. Makes the most sense to me. I doubt anyone cares about that "canon" point.

(16) Meh. Not going to fully visually describe every character the first time we meet them anymore, unless they're supposed to be really unknown. And... That sort of doesn't apply anymore, so what have I accomplished with this Author's Note?

(17) Snowflake: In canon, he says Weiss. There's no evidence that she told him her name, and if he doesn't know anything about Pyrrha I wouldn't expect him to know much more about Weiss. (Pyrrha should be a larger part of pop culture IMO, while Weiss is just the _child_ of a really important rich guy. She probably gets some media attention, but assuming everyone knows who she is is stupid to me.) Therefore, Snowflake. !Lol. Thought of a worse nickname. Snow Globe. There would be a puddle of Jaune on the floor if he said that one. Dem fat jokes...

(18) you and me would make a great one: I guess that's how Jaune talks, but "I" is proper in that case, not "me".

(19) I censor myself and the characters I write. There's no need for expletives. Feel free to swear all you want, but it really is just an option – one that I don't like.

(20) Anti-Schnee: Weiss still never learned Blake's name. She uses plenty of nicknames for the other two as well, though. I plan to fix this soon. I don't like introducing everything at once, so things like people's names will trickle in slowly. Also, I won't be providing nearly as much drama between characters (like Ruby and Weiss in the forest), because I don't _need_ instantaneous dramatic rises and falls in relationships. Canon goes the route of childish bickering that they must get over, while this story goes the route of holding onto a cold grudge, plus there are plenty of _extra_ things to further the grudge. Basically, I don't create and fix the problem all at once, and I don't have to since nothing needs to be squeezed down to fit into a season.

(21) shifted so the blue cartridge aligned with the left side of the blade: See 2:17-2:18 of episode 6. The type of dust in use is the one that faces the left side of the blade. Episode 8 also shows the chamber rotating, but it doesn't stop with blue facing the side we can see (the right side). I believe it turns three positions past where the blue faces us, which would put the blue at the left side of the blade. She then casts ice stuff. Seems to agree. In the same episode, after she freezes the nevermore's tail, she lands and we can see the left side of Myrtenaster, which is has the blue cartridge showing. Agrees again. I'll continue watching for other instances of Dust use in later episodes to check whether it stays this way. (I've watched Volume 1 and 2 three times already, but I mean as I'm looking closer to re-evaluate the episodes to write parallel events.) This is an awfully strange conclusion, as weapon schematics show a Dust exhaust port at the top side of the blade. Perhaps there's an angled nozzle thing. *Throws hands up in the air.*

(22) As far as they know, Grimm don't reproduce, but I think it's fine for them to have similar biology to the animals they resemble... Basically, there's no defining reason why they can't, and it can be used for humor, so I did it.

(23) crimson, gold, ivory, and ebony chess pieces: I wanted more colors. It's a little important since they're allowed to have larger groups during the initiation, but they still need to be divided into teams of four. That's clearly irrelevant when there aren't any groups of 3, 5, or more that I've mentioned, but it makes the system safer. And now all of RWBY get to have their own color, rather than only having gold and black as options. Whoops, spoiler. But I don't think anyone honestly cares about something so small. Whatever.

(24) According to my interpretation, no, Weiss couldn't just use fire dust to see. There's nothing flammable down there, so the only fuel source would be the dust itself. She would run out very quickly.

(25) died from ichor loss: I think it's a good idea to call Grimm blood ichor. We don't really ever see it in the show, but I'd assume they have it and it's just not shown because that could probably be considered gore, which may be above RWBY's intended ratings. If not, oh well. It's not going to cause any huge plot contradictions. At least, I don't have any reason to believe Rooster Teeth could possibly make Grimm blood or ichor or whatever actually significant to the plot. To clarify, I claim it's murky red. Red mixed with black. The insides of chopped Grimm are red, but they deserve to have some black goo, too.

(26) It's the area where they fight the nevermore and deathstalker in episode 8. I don't believe in abysses, so it's a really big natural crater across which some ancient civilization decided to build stone bridges. Yeahhhhh don't know how that's feasible at all, but it's a fantasy world. Huh. I'd be impressed if they went back here for plot to explain it. Spoiler alert: Maybe I'll do that... Nice piece of self-inspiration.

(27) Blake is the resident ninja, so I give her most of the small observations. I don't think anyone could complain.

(28) scorpion-like Grimm: Big stuff like deathstalkers and giant nevermores are probably too rare for civilians and lower-education people to know by name. Same goes for the weird underground Grimm I invented – and yes, those will get names. Weiss just doesn't know them yet. Otherwise, I think Grimm Studies class would be useless. If everyone knew about every kind of Grimm, what would be the point? Sure, some details. Still.

(29) Going out of Weiss's point of view a bit. There's no way she could see all of that at once, but I wanted to show a bit of everyone's capabilities.

(30) deceased beast: Ah, the rhyming! It hurts! It hurts so badly! No, no more poetry! Stop that, me!

(31) stopping at a restroom along the way: Probably 90% of authors forget these things exist other than for creating awkward scenes.

(32) Bravo if you could see this coming. I had it planned all along. It was inspired from "Starting at Checkmate" by Novandalis. In my story, I felt like it should be something she only discovers once she leaves her home, ergo this scene, although the timing is ambiguous in the inspiring story.

(33) I personally think Scrolls are a school and/or hunter thing. They have weird combat statistics, and it seems that the communication capabilities are very limited. Therefore, I decided to give the characters their Scrolls after initiation. If canon clarifies that this is not true, I'll change it. Hmm... Spoiler alert: I have twelve years to deal with, so I suppose upgrades are in order. (Just thought of that now, though.)

(34) the system's algorithm: Yes, you heard me right. I personally think it's rather humorous to assign teams by weighted probabilities and a pseudo-random number generator instead of just having it be simple. It came to mind shortly after deciding to do away with pairs. B-T-Dubs, the computer does it all on its own. Yeah, yeah, computers run on code, so every possibility should need to be categorized and scored with a formula, but this thing doesn't. It invents numbers as it goes. It's magically derptocious like that.

(35) I have the scroll go in her belt because she's not doing any extravagant journeying or fighting. She had to use the combat skirt's pockets before because that would protect the relic better. I guess I just wondered whether there were any pockets on the thing and decided "why not?", then wanted to implement it. This is hopefully a satisfactory answer.

(36) Confirmed! At around 2:00 in Volume 2 Chapter 3, you can clearly see the door on the "left" side of their room. It's on the wall with Weiss's and Ruby's beds, _not_ the wall with the window or the wall with the exit. Ironically, that's where I've always imagined it as I read fan fics, and I never pointed it out to myself before. That scene also influenced my decision to put them on the fourth floor.

(37) Whoops. Didn't mean to invent the first slightly awkward bathroom scene there, but I was in WWWD (what would Weiss do) mode and thought, "She's in a hurry. Let's grab some cleaning stuff and shower." Only after I realized that she only grabbed one briefcase did I realize one briefcase wouldn't contain toiletries _and_ towels and clothes. And I literally used a random number generator to decide who would have to do the deed, since I thought there were enough reasons for and against each person doing it.

(38) Sorry if you got bored with those monologues about weapons, Q_Q. But hopefully it was at least a little interesting, and it most certainly is beneficial for them to know a bit about one another's fighting styles and abilities.

(39) For images of the bed, V1E9 2:20 and V2E3 2:00 have two angles. I attempted to build a procedure to perfectly follow the canon design. It's a headache, I tell you. I thank my dad for having me watch his similar projects when I was a kid so that I had some starting points for this project. (Well, his projects were similar in that they involved drilling holes in the wall and/or ceiling to solidly attach... stuff. There was no rope-aided bed lofting. He's done plenty of other construction-related projects as well, but that's sort of irrelevant. He's a really knowledgeable guy in so many topics I can't keep track of all of them.) I'm 99.99% positive there's a better arrangement for the ropes that tie a bed to a ceiling than what Ruby decided on. Does she ever wash her sheets? Meh. Canon. Not going to add my dad as an OC to fix it. Lol.

(40) As the heiress used the throne: Darned stupid bad puns. I blame my dad for teaching me that nickname. But it fits sooooo well to the situation. I can't help it. Sorry, guys.

(41) I warned you of spoilers in the intro Author's Note. But Blake obviously tried to be the last one, since her low-light vision makes the task safer for her than for the others.

(42) Mr. Fluffschnee: No spoilers. That's obviously meant to create speculation and suspense. Why did I even footnote this? Whatever.

(43) two Lien: Like "two cents". Lien is Remnant's currency, and is first mentioned by Shopkeeper in episode 1.

(44) gave point: Fencing/sword fighting term for "stab". It's mostly been out of use for several centuries, but if there are swords on Remnant why not use it?

That's a LOT of footnotes...

I could've split this into three chapters, but the 'Great' theme held them together too stronklie for my heart to will them to be split apart.

In case you're wondering, stuff about characters outside of Weiss's POV is mostly the same as canon, or what it would obviously have to be to get to later points (like in the forest temple). I'm not doing an omniscient POV, so you get what you see. This allows me to skip some things, although I'll include certain important skipped plot points in conversations. Cough. Jaunedice. There will be _some_ POV switches in the story, but most of it will be Weiss's. Weird, since Blake is actually my favorite character? No, not really. It keeps her thoughts hidden.

Metric system FTW. It's all base-10, so there's no "multiply by 12" or 16 or whatever to get to the next larger type of unit. If you don't know it, just use online converters. One meter is a little over a yard (three feet), there are 2.54 centimeters to an inch, a kilogram is about 2.2 pounds, time is the same in both, and C = (F-32)*5/9 is the conversion from Fahrenheit temperature to Celsius. I won't go so far as to use Kelvin temperature (C-273.15), which is an absolute temperature scale (physically impossible to go to or under zero), as that's too science-y for everyday use. I don't think anything else would really be used in a story that doesn't include characters doing scientific work...

Just as a note, we're in the pre-"Twelve Hours" stage. The "Twelve Hours" is part of canon and was my inspiration for the title. If you recognize the significance of that duration of time, good for you. That's when there will be truly significant changes and additions to the plot. I suppose it's also worth noting that the days, weeks, months, and years are in linear order after each other starting at the "Twelve Hours", although they overlap (the weeks include the days, for instance).

… It's surprising how long it took to research Beacon's location, orientation, and building layout. The info is BAD. I also got distracted for a while looking up stuff about cleaning weapons, and I also had to get the wording for some conversations. There are a lot of really brief details that are shown in the animation that take quite the effort to include _and explain_ in writing. I've probably spent 32-38 hours on this chapter (didn't track time the first two days), although some of that is planning for future chapters. I'll include more precise numbers as a statistic at the beginning of later chapters. Muahahahaha.

You know what's annoying? Trying to fall asleep, then getting wonderful ideas for the story you're writing. It's happened to me every day from the original ideas for this story until I posted it (and probably past that). Can't I just sleep? Q_Q

Random commentary on Red Like Roses Part II since I've been listening to it for a large portion of this chapter and therefore had time to 'thunk' up some ideas. It's clearly meant to be Ruby's POV since it's continuation of _her_ trailer song and uses rose symbolism. However, there are a couple bits that haven't really been shown to be true, like Ruby constantly remembering and hating that her mother is dead. Most of the time she seems to accept it. What I really wanted to say, though, is that the song also applies to the other characters to some degree. Weiss's mother died, too. We don't know the exact circumstances, but she probably didn't 'sacrifice' herself, but a lot of the rest could still apply. We don't know anything about Blake's parents, so it's a little bit of a stretch. However, some parts of it could also apply to Adam. He certainly could be spiritually dead in her mind, although some of the very direct references to death definitely don't apply. This could also apply to Yang's missing mother (probably left rather than dying), other than literal death.

Special thanks goes to my brother for proofreading this, although there weren't very many necessary changes.

 **Chapter Synopsis:** Weiss comes to Beacon, where she hopes to be free of many of the burdens her family has placed on her. Ruby and Blake annoy her. The next day is the initiation. They fight Grimm, aren't too great at teamwork until they kill the nevermore with a collaborative attack, and everyone is assigned their teams. They move in. Wow. I'm impressed how short I made the synopsis. There are plenty of added scenes, though, and I'm pretty sure some scenes could be considered to be way overboard on detail.

 **Changes Synopsis:** Essentially every conversation has different wording... Added details immediately before members of RWBY came to school (conversation between Weiss and Mr. Schnee). "A few" setting details are clarified or changed. Food exists other than as a plot device for important conversations. The "pairs" for initiation are more loosely defined. The entire initiation is quite different, although the general destinations and goals remain the same. There's post-assignment stuff added before they go to sleep.

 **Edits:** 1\. Standardized Mr. Schnee to be called "Father" or "my father", as capitalization was inconsistent. Changed maps, directions, and distances a bit. 2. Heavily edited the introductory notes. November 16, 2016: Changed the characters list to account for the beginning of Volume 4 and my plans to the end.

 **Next update:** Lol if I know. I've been pretty inconsistent in the past, and I don't think I'll _quite_ keep up the same writing schedule as when I wrote this chapter. What's next will certainly not be as long of a section, so it could be a week or less even with a relaxed schedule, but I could decide to release two chapters at once so it's not just a couple thousand words. I love reading finished stories because you can _remember_ everything as you go, but I'm not posting this when it's complete. However, I would like to maintain larger chunks. Result: 3 days.


	2. Frostbitten Flowers Bloom

Chapter 2 – Frostbitten Flowers Can Still Bloom

 **Author's Note:**

Useless statistics: Chapter finished October 16, 2015. Published October 16, 2015. Total word count: 12342. Body word count: 10574 (86%). Writing Time: ~20 hours. Chapter Rating: T.

The following quote is from "Little Black Bow No More", by Jason Lantern. At first I thought the quote was incredibly childish and stupid, but now I love it. How does that even work? No idea. "I am Weiss Schnee. I am strong... I am." There's your inspirational quote for the day. But that's not all you get! It's a two-for-one deal, because here's Chapter 2, "Frostbitten Flowers Can Still Bloom":

* * *

 _Such a beautiful morning: The sun is shining, there's a nice breeze, the birds are singing, and... I'm in a room filled with dunces with whom I'll be living for four years. What a way to ruin the mood._ The heiress opened her eyes, shoved Mr. Fluffschnee under her pillow, rolled onto her back, and sat up with a big stretch and a yawn.

As expected, her fairly relaxing exit from dreamland was promptly ruined. A whistle blew directly into her left ear, causing the heiress to flop out of bed in surprise; apparently Ruby thought team leaders were supposed to share certain traits with drill sergeants. Well, according to Weiss, they most certainly were not.

"Good morning, Team RWBY!" the leader announced.

"What in the world is wrong with you?" Weiss complained.

Ruby seemed to have developed the ability to ignore the heiress's insults, and continued her team leader speech. "Let's all be nice and early for our first day of class! Team RWBY is going to be the best team ever! I'm all ready, so I figured I'd do the rest of you guys a favor by being your own personal alarm. Pretty, convenient, right?"(1)

"No, that is _not_ convenient! I was already awake, so all you did was annoy everyone with your stupid screeching piece of metal!" the white-haired girl answered.

"You're growing up so quickly, Ruby! I'm proud of you," Yang shared. "Oh! I'm gonna hit the shower." The blonde picked up a wad of clothes and headed into their second room.

"Okay, well, the rest of Team RWBY, to breakfast!" Ruby announced.

"But I'm not dressed!" Weiss objected.

"So get dressed?" the younger girl suggested. "I'm not stopping you."

"But I haven't taken a shower!"

"Psh. You took a shower last night."

"Ruby, you just don't get it, do you? I have showered every morning of my life since I was ten. I _need_ to shower," she explained. "Besides," the heiress said, pointing at her head, "have you _seen_ my hair? It's a disaster! I need to shower; end of story."

"Grow up, Weiss."

"Look who's talking!"

"Blake, let's go eat."

The black-haired girl put down her book and followed Ruby out the door, still wearing her pajamas. _What a pair of dunces. No regard for what is proper._

Weiss walked over to her desk and sorted through her school supplies, which all had SDC logos. The heiress picked up a light blue mechanical pencil and a notebook. She opened it to the first page and wrote 'Grimm Studies I'. That one was flipped closed, and the next notebook was labeled 'World History'. She continued the process, writing 'Intermediate Applications of Dust in Combat', 'Swordplay I', and 'Dueling I' on three more notebooks.

Weiss sighed. _I hope Yang gets out of there soon. There's nothing for me to do._

She decided to stick her head in the door to make her request known. "Yang, could you please hurry up a bit?"

Yang probably didn't hear her; the girl was singing. "Come at me / And you'll see / I'm more than meets the eye / You think that / You'll break me / You're gonna find in time / You are standing too close to a flame that's burning / Hotter than the sun in the middle of July! / Sending out your army but you still can't win / Listen up, silly boy, cuz I'm gonna tell you why-y-y-y-y / I burn! Can't hold me now - You've got nothing! / I burn! Swing all you want / Like a fever I will take you down."(2)

Weiss left the bathroom, and after only about a minute of boredom her wish was granted – the wish regarding having nothing to do. The sound of water falling continued from the bathroom, but a different sound came from the room above. The crunching sound was not the only thing that descended to Team RWBY's room, however. _What in the world...?_ A person-shaped section fell from the ceiling in the middle of their room with a loud bang, complete with an actual person. "Ah, s**t," groaned Russel Thrush.

"Yo, Russel, you still in one piece?" asked Cardin Winchester from the other side of the hole.

"Yeah, boss. The floor ain't, though," he replied. "Whoa, who are you?"

Weiss held her chair aloft, ready to strike. "I should be asking _you_ that question. Why are you in my room?!"

"H-hey," Russel stuttered, "I-I think th-there _might_ be a sli-i-ight misunderstanding."

Cardin attempted to come to the boy's rescue. "We were just having some fun, you know? Blowing off some steam before we had to do yucky schoolwork."

Even if his story was true, that was _not_ the answer Weiss was looking for. _And_ he insulted his education, the whole reason he should be here in the first place! She set the chair down, instead picking up her scroll and dialing '1', the campus help hotline.

"H-hey, you don't want to go alerting the authorities, right?" Russel asked desperately.

The ringtone sounded once but was then interrupted by a voice. "Hello. How may I help you?"

"Two bullheaded bison decided it would be a good idea to smash through their floor, which just so happens to be _my_ ceiling. I need repairs, and they need a hefty punishment. Room four hundred thirteen, and I'd guess five hundred thirteen as well. Be quick about it."

"Okay. I'm on it." The other end of the line disconnected.

"B**ch," Cardin called from his safe vantage point. _What a coward. He knows I can't get him up there._

"Weiss, what happened?" asked Yang, opening the door. She was dressed in a towel. Russel let out a wolf whistle, causing Yang to grin and pose, but once she focused her vision on the scene her eyes turned red. "You are _dead_."

Russel didn't get the opportunity to whimper. Yang secured her towel, then marched over to the not-unsuspecting boy and proceeded to pummel his face with her unarmored fists.

"****," said Cardin, watching helplessly(3). "Sorry, Russel; it's been nice knowing you. But I've got to be leaving now." The cowardly team leader disappeared from the other side of the hole.

"Yang?" the heiress probed. "Are you- are you going to stop?"

"I." Punch. "HOPE." Punch. "YOU'RE." Punch. "AS." Punch. "HUNGRY." Punch. "AS." Punch. "THAT." Punch. "NEVERMORE." Punch. "FROM." Punch. "YESTERDAY!" Punch. Elbow. Punch. "IT." Punch. "SURE." Punch. "LIKED." Punch. "TO." Punch. "EAT." Punch. "MY." Punch. "BULLETS!" Punch. Elbow. Punch. "D*MN." Punch. "THIS." Punch. "IS." Punch. "CATHARTIC!" Punch. Punch. Punch. Elbow. Knee. Punch. … Punch, punch.

And the punches didn't stop there. Only after Weiss answered the knock on the door and Professor Goodwitch pulled Russel out of the room did Yang stop attempting to wipe the kid off the face of the planet(4).

"Shi- _window panes_. What did I just do?"( 5) Yang had cooled down and her eyes were once again violet. "I'm going to get dressed. The shower is all yours, Weiss," the brawler offered with a large, false, grin.

 _What have I gotten myself into? Well, there's no changing what already happened. I'll just have to try to make the best of this... I should start by getting ready for the day and trying to take my mind off of all this._

Weiss retrieved a uniform shirt, vest, jacket, and skirt, plus fresh undergarments, a pair of socks, and some accessories, then headed into the bathroom. As far as she knew, she had everything this time. The heiress got out a small towel and laid it on the counter, then placed Yang's hair products onto it to make room for Weiss's in the shower. Hopefully the rest of them would catch on and continue using this system. She retrieved her light blue towel from the upper-right of the four towel bars on the far wall (6) and moved it to the smaller hook directly next to the shower. She relieved herself of the excess layers and proceeded to wash off all traces of scum.

Inspired by Yang, the heiress sang quietly, just loud enough that she could hear herself but hopefully not so loud that anyone else would. It was a song that she'd written a few years ago and had performed at a recital(2). "Mirror, tell me something. Tell me who's the loneliest of all. / Mirror, tell me something. Tell me who's the loneliest of all. / Fear of what's inside me... Tell me, can a heart be turned to stone? / Mirror, mirror, what's behind you? Save me from the things I see. / I can keep it from the world; why won't you let me hide from me? / Mirror, mirror! Tell me something! Who's the loneliest of all? / I'm the loneliest of all..."

Unsatisfied emotionally and in the hygiene department, Weiss repeated the song two more times before she was done. The heiress dried off, dressed, and applied her proper dose of mascara, then brushed her hair and gathered it in a ponytail slightly to the right, holding that in place with her silver hairpin. Now all that was left was to pop her earrings in, and she was ready to get breakfast.

Yang was already gone by the time Weiss made her way out of the bathroom, but as she was about to leave, Professor Goodwitch returned with two repairmen. After the white-haired girl let them in, she realized she needed her scroll. She retrieved it and left the room, looking over her shoulder as she left. Goodwitch was levitating the rubble on the floor to fill the hole, and the repairmen were lifting a new sheet of drywall to seal off the hole(7).

The heiress gave Ruby and Blake a small greeting as she passed them on her way to the cafeteria. Today there was only one option: Cinnamon rolls. They were one of Weiss's favorites, but since the treats were so unhealthy she didn't eat them often. At least they made the day seem a little better...

* * *

Weiss had finished her meal _(There's no reason I'll ever have to tell them that I ate six and a half.)_ and was once again standing outside of Room 413. The door opened with that invigorating clicking sound, and the girl let herself in. The repairmen and Assistant Headmaster were gone and the other members of her team had returned. The ceiling was patched up, but the sealant was still drying and the new section was unpainted.

"Welcome back, Weiss," Ruby greeted. "They fixed the ceiling and even patched the floor, although the guys did say they would need to come back to finish up."

"At least _someone_ can do something right around here," the heiress replied.

"Man, I'm hungry..." Yang said.

"How can you possibly be hungry? I'm surprised you're not the size of an ursa with an appetite like that."

"No; you don't know what you're talking about! I don't eat that much! _Ruby_ , on the other hand..."

"Hey! I can't help it that the cookie is the single best thing ever invented by mankind!"

"You're not making any sense, Yang. Of course you're a pig if you're still hungry," Weiss continued.

"Heh. It's a funny story," Yang supplied, rubbing the back of her neck. "Goodwitch sort of dragged me off after she took Russel, and I have detention from five to six for the rest of the week. The Snot deserved most of what I gave him, but I guess I did go a bit overboard."

"Thank you for being honest," Blake said, looking up from a book. "Not many people have the strength to admit their own mistakes."

 _A Schnee has the strength to not_ make _mistakes._

"Wow. Thanks, I guess. Hey, Ruby, what does our schedule look like?"

"Well, Grimm Studies is at nine, and then-"

"What? Did you say nine o' clock?" demanded the heiress. "It's eight fifty-five, you dunce!"

"Uh... It's room one fifty one Port Hall! T-t-to class!"(8)

Weiss hurriedly picked up Myrtenaster and scooped up the top notebook of the pile on her desk, which already had a pencil stuck in the binding. She was the first member of the team to rush out the door. She heard Team JNPR's door on the opposite side of the hallway also slam open, and both teams sprinted together to their lecture hall on the opposite side of Beacon Tower.

* * *

"Good morning, my lovely students. I am Professor Peter Port, your magnificent, skilled, _handsome_ instructor for this course," announced a rather large man with a red suit and graying hair. Ruby snickered at Weiss's side. "Before we get started for the day, I have an announcement from Headmaster Ozpin." The man's mustache wiggled and jerked far more than it should have needed to from the movement of his lips. It almost seemed to have a life of its own... "Ahem: 'All students are kindly reminded to store their weapons in their lockers unless needed for class. Not all buildings are meant to accommodate our fine combat implements. I dearly hope this will not become a problem in the future.' And that is all."

 _Yeah, that would have prevented Ruby's little accident with the floor,_ the heiress thought. Suddenly, the plump prof walked out of the room, much to everyone's confusion, then walked right back in, much to everyone's disappointment. Well, everyone other than Weiss; she was looking forward to class.

It seemed the re-entrance was all for dramatic effect, as the professor now walked to the center of the room and raised his arms for emphasis as he began speaking. "Monsters; demons; prowlers of the night. Yes, the creatures of Grimm have many names."

Ruby was already _snoring_ to Weiss's left. _How can she be sleeping through this? She certainly got a full night's sleep, and we're supposed to be getting an education! This is gold! Absolute gold! Mister Port is amazing at his job. I couldn't dislike this lecture if I tried!_ The heiress took notes eagerly.

"But _I_ merely refer to them as prey. Ha- _ha_! Haha." _Not bad._ Unfortunately, none of the other students thought so. "Uh, and _you_ shall too, upon graduating from this _prestigious_ Academy.

(9)"Now as I was saying, Vale, as well as the other three kingdoms, are safe havens in an otherwise treacherous world." The man paced around the room with his hands held behind his back in a dignified manner. "Our planet is absolutely _teeming_ with creatures that would love nothing more than to tear you to pieces. And that's where we come in.

"Huntsmen! _Huntresses..._ " He clicked his tongue and raised an eyebrow at this last word... Maybe he wasn't the perfect professor she thought he was... "Individuals who have sworn to protect those who cannot protect themselves. From what, you ask? Why, the very world!"

The professor paused, and an enthusiastic student sitting behind and to the left of Weiss cheered. _Indeed. That was rather good._

"That is what you are training to become. But first: A story." _Excellent! Stories are great teaching tools. They're proven to form much longer lasting memories than the simple listing of pieces of information._

"A tale of a young, _handsome_ , man. Me! When I was a boy," – Now Ruby was scribbling on a piece of paper; couldn't she pay attention? – "I lived in a small village on the outskirts of Vale. Every day, my father would go out hunting the creatures of Grimm, and every day when he returned, he and my grandfather would tell me magnificent tales and teach me important life lessons. Despite smelling of cabbages, my grandfather was a wise man. In fact, he was the famous Huskington Port for which this building was named. Anyway, it started out as just another after-supper discussion, but this evening Papa Husk would change my life forever. 'Peter,' he told me, 'Some day, you will become as fine a hunter as I was. All it takes is for you to put your entire heart into it. You will go far, my boy.' And far I did go. To prove myself to my father and grandfather, I went out in search of an elusive beowolf that was rumored to have killed dozens of citizens. After days of tracking, I eventually located the beast. I continued following my adversary, but when I least suspected it, the monstrosity cornered me. However, I was not afraid. I remembered the words of my grandfather and charged in to grapple with the creature, pouring my whole heart into the battle."(10)

Ruby poked the heiress in the shoulder. She angrily looked to the side and saw Ruby's crude drawing of their fine Professor Port, which depicted stench waves pouring off of the poor man. The red-tipped girl made a crude flatulence noise with her mouth as well. And the worst part was that the rest of her teammates laughed! No, that wasn't the worst part – Professor Port noticed, too!

"*Ahem!* In the end, the beowolf was no match for my sheer tenacity, and I returned to my village with the beast in captivity and my head held high. I was celebrated _as a hero_." The instructor bowed to signify the end of his tale. "The moral of the story?"

Ruby was balancing an apple on top of a book on top of her pencil while making a fish face. _Seriously. Just pay attention, Ruby!_ The heiress gritted her teeth. She was unable to keep taking notes because she was so frustrated, and it was even the most important part!

"A true huntsman must be honorable. A true huntsman must be dependable."– _And now she's sleeping!?_ – "A true huntsman must be strategic, well-educated," – _She's picking her nose!?_ – "and wise! So, who among you believes themselves to be the embodiment of these traits?"

An opportunity! She would _show_ that Ruby, _and_ impress the professor. The heiress's hand shot up faster than the return stroke of a bolt of lightning. "I do, sir!"

"Well then, let's find out," the portly instructor announced. "Step forward and face your opponent." He gestured toward a cage sitting in the front corner of the classroom.

The girl stood up and marched down the sloped aisle to the front of the room as Port retrieved his weapon from its wall mount. Everyone's eyes were on Weiss. No matter; she'd been around much larger crowds in the past. They weren't going to drag her down. Rather, she was going to do even better than normal, so well that they would all sing her praises from dawn 'till dusk for a week. She drew Myrtenaster.

" _Goooo_ Weiss!" "Fight well!" "Yeah! Represent Team RWBY!" encouraged her teammates.

 _Oh, come on! All that team nonsense..._ "Ruby, I'm _trying_ to focus!"

"Oh. Sorry..."

With a defeated Ruby out of the way, the professor reasserted his presence. "Alright! Let the match... _begin_!" With that, he hacked the cage's lock apart using the axe end of his weapon( 11).

The door fell forward, revealing a pig thing with large white tusks. Once it spotted Weiss, it lowered its head and charged.

 _Okay, so if it wants to go in a line all I have to do is step off the line and I'll be fine._ Weiss sidestepped with her left foot, then slid her right foot back as well to turn herself to face the creature's right side, following through with a left-to-right slash. The hit made contact, but the beast's armor was thick enough that there was no damage. She had to roll to dissipate the leftover energy from her spinning maneuver, then stood once again.

The beast skidded to a halt, realizing that it had missed its target, and turned around to face her.

"Haha! Weren't expecting that, were you?" Prof. Port commented. _Seriously? What does it matter?_

"Hang in there, Weiss!" added Ruby. The shrimp of their team. The peanut. The peanut gallery – appropriate. She definitely had the unnecessary comments to qualify for the position.

Okay. The pig's sides were a bad target, so maybe its front would work? It had plenty of armor on its head, though... But it did have eyes and a mouth. If she could get to one of those, that would probably work. She charged, as did her prey. Her aim was perfect, pointed directly at its right eye... but then the creature moved its head sideways at the last second. "Gah!" Myrtenaster grazed off of one tusk and was trapped by the other one once the Grimm's head straightened out, and Weiss's momentum caused her to back flip over the creature. She landed on her feet, but her wrist bent backward during the flip and Myrtenaster fell out from the beast's oversized teeth(12).

"Come on, Weiss; show it who's boss!" Ruby added. _Peanut gallery. Shut up._

Unfortunately, the heiress had shown her displeasure by glaring at Ruby, and this meant her eyes were not on her opponent. The boar capitalized on this by spinning around and ramming Weiss in the gut with the flats of its tusks, sending her flying across the room. That wasn't such a bad thing, though; Aura handily padded her fall, and now she had some space between her foe and herself.

"Now what will you do without your weapon?" Port commented. _Get it back. Obviously._

Her adversary charged again, and the girl barely managed to roll out of the way. However, the pig had too much momentum to stop, and it rammed into one of the thick writing tables (which were encased on all sides but where the student would sit). That stopped it temporarily, and the heiress made a dash for her weapon. _Yes! I've got her!_

 _The head doesn't work so well, and neither do the sides. It has armor on its back, but maybe not on its rump... I don't think I could get there, and it probably wouldn't do much. So maybe underneath... But how can I get there?_

Weiss's planning time was interrupted by the arrival of the recovered beast. She sidestepped and flicked Myrtenaster's tip upward, catching the creature on the corner of its belly, but it was a glancing blow. _I need a more solid hit._

"Weiss, go for its belly! There's no armor underneath-" interjected the peanut gallery.

"Stop telling me what to do!" Weiss yelled back. Ruby looked surprisingly perturbed by that small comment. Good.

However, Weiss knew she needed to pay attention to the boar, not to her 'team leader'. As she turned her gaze, the thing rolled into a spinning ball of death and came at her. _Great. Now it's completely sealed up; there's no way to get to its underside._ She dodged out of the way of its first attack, but the thing somehow saw what she was doing and turned around much faster than it should have been able to. It approached once more, and Weiss got an idea. She formed a glyph in front of her as a barrier, and the pig fell into... no, ran into the trap. It bounced off the glyph and landed on its back. Then the heiress back flipped into the air onto another glyph, this one angled downward and imbued for propulsion, and shot directly toward her upturned prey. She rocketed toward it, plunging Myrtenaster directly into its soft underside, and several milliseconds later her left knee and right foot touched the ground next to the vanquished foe. It squealed once and then faded into oblivion.

"Bravo! BRA _vo_!" applauded Professor Port. "It appears we are indeed in the presence of a promising huntress-to-be. But I'm afraid that's all the time we have for today. A pity they schedule such a short amount of time on the first day. But be sure to cover the assigned readings that are posted online, and, most importantly, _stay vigilant_. Class dismissed."

Weiss departed from the room as quickly as possible without resorting to running, and headed back toward the dormitory.

* * *

"Weiss!" she heard from behind her, so she turned around.

"What?" she answered. Of course, the voice just had to belong to Ruby.

"What's wrong with you? I though we were getting along! Why are you being-"

"What's wrong with _me_? 'What's wrong with _you_?' is a _much_ better question! You're supposed to be a leader, but all you've been so far is a nuisance."

"What did I do?"

"That's just it! You've done nothing to earn your position."

"What do you mean? It was the Algorithm!"

"You want a real list? You've got it!" The heiress counted off on her fingers until she ran out of them. "You couldn't handle yourself around Dust-" "It was an accident!" "You pestered me about the situation afterward-" "How was I supposed to know you were listening?" "You kept everyone awake in the ballroom-" "I was just trying to make friends..." "You couldn't watch where you were running in the forest-" "Sor-ry! But you can't always see everything when you're almost breaking the sound barrier!" "You cut me off during that first fight-" "You should've planned more carefully!" "You activated the traps at the temple-" "How was I supposed to know?" "You made me rescue you against the bird-" "I'm sorry that giant birds have really long legs!" "You challenged me to a killing contest when I had zero usable calories left-" "You were arrogant enough to accept!" "You touched me when I was asleep-" "I was helping you!" "You wouldn't leave me alone-" "I thought we could be friends!" "You picked a stupid horse so you'd get on my team, and even got a red one so you'd lead the stupid team-" "I didn't plan that! How was I supposed to know you'd pick a knight?" "You locked me out of my own room-" "I thought we made up!" "You went through my stuff when I was in the shower-" "You asked for help, so I did what I had to!" "You made a hole in the floor-" "Sorry! It's hard to get rid of habits!" "You made me hold you up for probably a few hours, and then demanded a canopy-" "It was only twenty-five minutes!" "You blew a whistle in my ear when I was already awake-" "Yeah, you woke up right when I was about to do that!" "You advocated public pajama-wearing-" "What's your problem?" "You almost made us late-" "You weren't even in the room by that time!" "You couldn't stop goofing off in class-" "Professor Port is boring!" "You kept bossing me around in that fight! I had everything under control!" "You did not! When you finally killed it, it was just how I said!" "I planned that out before you even told me!" "Yeah, right!" "And finally, you kept arguing with me for this whole conversation!"

"... Oops. ...But it really seemed like we were a team! What about that fight with the nevermore? We were doing so well."

"I'm fine with being on a team, just _not_ a team _lead by you_. I've trained and studied for a really long time, and quite frankly, I deserve better. Ozpin made a mistake. You shouldn't even _be here_ , Ruby."

Ruby began to tear up, but was comforted by a hand on her shoulder.

"Hmm," came a male voice, "Is _that_ what you think? Come with me, girls."

* * *

To put it lightly, it was a very awkward walk to the tower and an equally awkward elevator ride to the top floor, made even more awkward by the young man who came from the basement level, had the button for every floor pushed, and left on only the second floor. Every time the door opened, Weiss wanted to run out onto whichever floor it was and hide in a corner, but, _A Schnee is strong. You can do this, Weiss._

Ozpin scanned his Scroll at the doorway and led the girls into his office. Although there were a fancy chair and an equally fancy desk in the center of the room, the headmaster gestured toward a back corner of the chamber where there was an old, brown, dilapidated sofa. He sat down on the middle cushion and patted to either side.

Ruby shuffled over to Ozpin's right and slumped down into the piece of furniture. Weiss, however, had different ideas. "Why would I want to sit on _that_? It'll probably ruin my new uniform."

"I can assure you, it is quite safe. Sit down, Miss Schnee." The heiress huffed and rolled her eyes, but reluctantly sat down. The man barely acknowledged her action and instead turned to Ruby. "Ruby, everything will turn out fine," he said, cradling her head in his arms. "I'll let you in on a little secret: The largest part of seeding for leadership is _not_ the color of chess piece that you pick up. Over forty percent of the probability is decided by me. I _chose_ you to be a leader, and in your case the algorithm did not deny that preference."

"You really... You believe in me?" the girl choked out.

 _What? Why would he do that? Ruby's so... so..._ "Hey! I'm right here, you know!"

"Yes, yes; I know all too well. This is as necessary for you as it is for her, Weiss." That did not make a single gram of sense to the heiress, but she clearly wasn't going to escape until the headmaster said so. "What do you think about all this, Miss Schnee?"

She sighed again. "Isn't it obvious? _I_ should have been the leader of Team RWBY."

"That's absurd. It's only been one day – nowhere near enough time to make any certain judgments."

"Sir, picking Ruby was a mistake."

"Girls, I've made more mistakes than any man, woman, or child on this planet, but at this moment I would not consider Ruby's appointment to leader to be one of them. Do you, Ruby?"

The false redhead sniffled a bit and sat up straighter. "No..." she said in a soft, fragile voice.

"So even after spying on the initiation and seeing how great I am and how whiny Ruby is, you don't think it would've been better to make me leader? I can't pretend to understand that."

"I do admit that you were scored quite highly on your combat performance during the test," the headmaster agreed.

Ruby broke down once again; apparently hearing the truth from two sources was too much for her(13).

"But with all due respect, Weiss," he continued, "your exceptional combat skills are matched only by your poor attitude."

"How dare you!?"

"My point exactly. Ruby has been trying her best to be your friend, but you're too caught up in your own personal agenda to see it as such. When I look at you, I see a girl who has spent her entire life getting exactly what she wants," the Professor explained.

"Let me tell you something: Being born a rich girl does not make for an enjoyable childhood," Weiss replied. "My father has held me to impossible standards and controlled every hour of every day for seventeen years. And that's why I came here. To get away from it all, so I'd have at least four years of my life that I could remember fondly; four years that I could be Weiss, not The Schnee Heiress."

"But," Ozpin objected, "now that you're on your own, everything you've done has been exactly that which you've been raised to do. You're not being Weiss, the seventeen year old girl; you're being Weiss, the seventeen year old dictator. A leader is someone who looks out for her companions, not for herself. Do you truly believe this is how you've been acting?"

"Well... I saved Ruby from that nevermore. That's something."

"Miss Schnee, I am not talking about battle; I am talking about your day-to-day life. You have been rude to almost everyone you've come across, especially Ruby."

"I helped everyone get up the cliff..."

"You helped _some_ people get up the cliff, and then promptly abandoned the rest. Weiss, you must understand, a team member must look out for everyone, not just herself. The same principle applies to a leader, but even more so. Ruby," he patted the girl on the back, "is a caring individual, something you, Miss Schnee, need to work on. You must learn to be a friend before you can learn to be a leader. That, I believe, is what you're searching for at this Academy. Do you understand?"

"I-" she started, a sharp retort ready on her tongue, but then the headmaster's words sank in. "I'm so sorry, Ruby; I truly am. Last night, I just apologized so you'd let me in, but even then I asked for more from you." Tears welled up in the heiress's eyes, but she hastily wiped them away. "I really am sorry, Ruby," – Weiss's voice broke as she choked down a sob. The girl flopped across Ozpin's knees to embrace Ruby's shoulders.

"Weiss," Ruby barely got out through her tears, "I'm _so_ happy." Then the tears overcame her and the junior leader clawed her way over to Weiss. The two formed a soggy heap of remorse and joy, and just sat there letting it all out. "W-w-weiss, w-want-t a-a t-tissue?" Ruby sobbed.

"I don't even know why you have a tissue, but tha-ha-hanks-s..."

This 'moment' only lasted about half an hour, ending when Weiss woke up to Ozpin's shifting underneath her. "I'm proud of you two," he said as he smiled fondly. "RWBY is the most promising team I've had in years, so I'm glad you're working things out. Sometimes all that's needed is a small... push."

Both girls spoke at the same time, saying, "Thank you, Professor Ozpin," and embracing the man.

When Weiss realized that they had both said the same thing at the same time, she looked up at Ruby with her face burning in embarrassment. Ruby's face was awfully red as well, and the heiress turned her face away.

"Now Miss Rose," the headmaster instructed, "you may nominally be the head of your team, but being a true team leader isn't just about a title to carry into battle. Rather, the mantle of leadership is a badge you must wear constantly. If you are not always performing at your absolute best, then you give others little reason to follow you."

Ruby sat up and tipped her head down. "Yes, sir. I understand. I'll do my best, for me, _and_ for my team," she replied, pointedly looking at Weiss as she said 'team'.

"And Miss Schnee," he continued, "rather than worrying yourself over leadership, I recommend being the best person – the best _friend_ – that you can be. Perhaps then you'll be able to find a place of belonging."

The heiress nodded and turned to Ruby. "Ruby. I... am going to be the _best_ teammate... you'll _ever_ have."

"Now pardon me," interrupted Ozpin, "but you'd best be on your way back to your room. I'm sure your other teammates are looking for you, and I believe World History starts in half an hour..."

They didn't need any more encouragement.

* * *

"Ruby, do you have another tissue? My nose is still running..." the heiress civilly asked.

"Sorry; I only keep two spares on me," Ruby answered. Then the girl began giggling. "I bet you'd say, 'A Schnee is always prepared,' but sorry, Weiss, I guess a Rose just isn't as prepared as a Schnee."

"No, that's okay. You've been apologizing since we met, and it should really be my turn. Besides, I only need a tissue because I caused all these problems in the first place..."

"Aw, Weiss... If I wasn't such a pest, you wouldn't have been so angry at me. I'm the one who should be blamed."

"Hey, guys," said Yang, standing in the open doorway to their room. "Why are you yelling at yourselves instead of at each other?"

"Well... You can thank Professor Ozpin for that," her sister replied. "We're all fixed like a magical crowbar."

"Rubes, I don't think crowbars are used for fixing things most of the time..."

"Words, schmerds. I can run around campus emphasizing the importance of the indigo rain-board in alpha duplexes if I want to."

Although Weiss believed she was now fairly capable of handling Ruby's antics, she still didn't manage to stop the obligatory facepalm. "Ruby, don't we have important things to do? You know, other than talking about nonsense?"

"Oh!" she yelped. "Team RWBY, to World History! Two twenty Lagoon Hall! For education!" The leader gave a fist pump and began dashing back toward the elevator, but then realized... "Wait! Notebooks!"

"I've got you covered," said Blake, handing Ruby a pencil and a fresh notebook and handing Weiss her blue SDC pencil and the notebook she had labeled for the class earlier that day.

"Thanks," Ruby said at a polite volume, but then she turned her voice up several notches and gave a cheesy grin. "To History, or we'll _become_ it!"

* * *

"Goodmorningclassmynameis _Doctor_ BartholomewOobleckandIwillbeyourorofessorforhistorythissemesterit'sadelighttomeetyou."(14) The man, wearing olive pants and a partially tucked in white button-up shirt with a sloppy yellow tie, took a brief pause from his monologue to take a sip from his mug. He was standing unnaturally still, as though he was about ready to jump out of his skin but was trying terribly hard not to.

 _He must put_ extra _caffeine in his coffee to be like that,_ Weiss pondered. _There's no way he could be that hyperactive naturally._ Currently, Weiss's notebook page contained the following:

 _World History Lecture 1  
_ _*Professor Oobleck_

If the man had said anything else of importance thus far, the heiress had missed it.

"NowasI'mguessingmanyofyoucannotkeepupwithmyrapidpaceofspeechIwillgiveyoutheanswertothefinalexamwhichthesyllabussaysisworthonlythirtypercentbutitisactuallyyourwholegradeandhasonlyonequestionthathasnothingtodowiththecoursematerial. Theanswertothequestion'HowmanyindividualsocksdidIownyesterdayandhowmanysocksdoIowntoday'is'Thirtysevenandthirtytworespectvely'. Arethereanyquestionsorshallwegetrightintothemeatofthings,history?" The man took another sip of coffee.

Weiss jotted down, '*Final: Thirty-seven and thirty-two, respectively.' If her teammates would treat her well for the rest of the semester, she may decide to share her notes with them... if they were lucky.

The heiress looked over toward Ruby, but was rather surprised to see the girl staring straight at Dr. Oobleck with a pencil in hand and some notes on her paper. (Weiss noted with some degree of pleasure, however, that 'Thirty-seven and thirty-two, respectively' was not in the leader's notes.)

"Yesyesinfacthistoryisconstantlybeingmade. Why, eventodayhistorywasmadewhenIlostarecordoffivesocksallatonce;infacttheyseemtohavedisappearedoffthefaceoftheplanetwhichisquitethedifficultthingtodoforasocksincetheyhavenonativemeansofpropulsion. Oi, can everyone hear me in the back?"

The instructor received a couple of nods, but many, many horizontal shakes of the head.

"Alright, then, I will attempt to speak up a bit. You see, historyisall around us andifwedon't _learn_ from it, wearedestinedto _repeat_ it."

The heiress decided that since she was already in the room, she'd still take notes, but if there was anything that confused her it wouldn't be a worry. The heiress glanced to her side once again to check that Ruby was still there; she was, and Weiss hadn't heard a single peep out of her since the class began.

"Now, today willsimplybe an overview forthe course. I'llkeepitbrief. The schedule is what I'd call a reverse order: Forthefirstsix weeks, wewillbediscussing recent world events suchastheFaunus War andrecentexperimentswithcities _outside_ thekingdoms."

Oobleck took another coffee break, and the heiress decided to check on the rest of her team. Yang's notebook was filled with its owner's face rather than pencil markings, but Blake was leaning back, looking fairly comfortable with the lecture's atmosphere and progress.

"However, thenextsixweeks will step back inthehistoricalperspective andwewillcover eachofthefourkingdoms,discussingtheirgovernments,culture,andsignificantcontributionstotheworldasawhole. Thelastsixweekswewillbediscussingthethreesignificanterasofhumanhistory:TheDarkAge,TheDustAge,AndTheModern Age,alsoknownastheAgeoftheKingdoms. Otherprofessorsmayprefer starting _far_ inthepastandthenbuildinguptoacasualdiscussionofthepresent,butIbelieveyouwillallfindthemoreancienthistorymoreinterestingifyouarefirstencouragedtowonderabouthowtheworldevergottoits _present_ state."

The heiress jotted down a couple more notes:

 _*First recent events  
_ _*Second the four kingdoms  
_ _*Third the three eras of history  
_ _**Dark Age  
_ _**Dust Age  
_ _**Modern Age (Age of the Kingdoms)  
_ _*Nutty Prof. wants to go backwards_

"Nowifyou'llexcusemeIwillinreturnexcuseyou;that'sallforthedayItoldyouitwouldbeashortlecture _goodbye_." The unkempt man zipped out of the room at a speed that probably rivaled Ruby's – actually, now that the heiress thought about it, it's possible that Oobleck had a similar Semblance.

The students who were still awake got up from their seats and stretched a bit, prodding their sleeping neighbors. As Weiss and her teammates meandered toward the door, the white-haired girl caught sight of Oobleck returning to the room to grab his thermos and a manila folder, then zipping back out his side door as quickly as before. Or was that just a hallucination? If not, it happened so quickly it may as well have been.

"Ruby," Weiss said to her teammate, "I don't give compliments, but I'm really proud of you for sitting through that entire lecture so attentively."

"Yeah; I don't know what's gotten into you, Rubes," Yang added.

"Well," the girl responded, poking her cheek nervously, "Ozpin kind of said I should set a good example for the team, and I guess I sort of agree..."

"Oh, Ruby, you're all growd-ed up! I'm so proud of you! You're gonna to be the best Guild Mom ever!"

"Yang! Get off of me," Ruby gasped, attempting to shove her sister's hugging arms off of her face. Blake shook her head in a combination of amusement and shame.

"Knock it off, you two. You're lucky I'm still in a moderately good mood," the heiress scolded. "Let's get lunch so we can get to our next classes on time."

* * *

"Man! Their chicken nuggets are so good!" Ruby said.

"Yeah," her sister replied, "only because you stuffed cookies in them."

"I've never had to eat cardboard, but I think that might taste better than those nuggets," Weiss complained. "But you know, it really was more enjoyable eating as a group. Thanks, guys."

"Yay, Weiss!" "Call any time." "It's no big deal."

"Hey!" Ruby announced. "We'd better get to our room. We have our personal weapon classes next. 'Scything Thine Enemy I' and 'Sniping I' for me, 'Swordplay I' and 'Intermediate Applications of Dust in Combat' for Weiss, 'The Way of Two Swords I' and 'Handguns I' for Blake, and 'Boxing I' and 'Grappling I' for Yang. I don't know if we'll need notebooks or our weapons since it's the first day, so we should probably bring both."

* * *

The four were just returning from their afternoon classes. Ruby and Yang were the first ones to get back to the room, and now Weiss walked in. "Hey, Weiss, guess what?" Ruby prodded. "Ozpin was my Scythes instructor since they don't actually have anyone who uses one here... I'm the only one in the whole school."

"Wow. That's... interesting. They made a class all for you once it was decided you would be attending?"

"Yeah, isn't it cool? He's like... super-headmaster. He actually cares about the students – it's just so *squeeeeeeee*!"

"Guys," said Blake, just entering, "the syllabuses for our classes are finally posted." The four were just returning from their afternoon classes, and Blake was the last to step in the door(15).

"Awesome!" "It sure took long enough..." " 'Kay, don't care."

The black-haired girl consulted her scroll. "Grimm Studies One and World History have textbooks, but the other classes don't have any. We'll need to head to the library to check them out."

"That won't be necessary," Weiss objected. "I can just buy a copy for each of us so we'll have them as long as we want."

"But Weiss, you don't have to do that," Ruby complained. "Aren't textbooks really expensive? I think it would be better to just get loaners from the library."

" _Seriously_ , Ruby? Money is _not_ an issue. My father is _the_ richest man in all of Remnant."

"Hehehe... Yeah; I forgot. My dad's really cool, but he can't always do things like _that_ for us."

"Let's not talk about that right now. We're going shopping," Weiss commanded.

* * *

The second basement level of the dorm building contained the Academy's store. Although nearly everything was provided for the students, some things were outside the realm of necessity and were sold here.

Case in point: An inflated balloon in the shape of Beacon's mascot, a smiling, axe-wielding lighthouse, stood just inside the main doors. Weiss sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Hey, I wonder if that would make a good punching bag," Yang commented.

"I wouldn't know," the Schnee answered. "Why don't you find out for yourself?"

Yang cracked her neck and knuckles. "Hey, you, know, that's not a bad-"

"Yang, don't," Ruby pleaded, feeding her sister a wounded baby animal expression. Her sister's shoulders slumped in defeat. Unfortunately, just because one foe was defeated didn't mean another wouldn't spring up. The team leader dashed to a shelf full of Beacon Tower-shaped jars... Cookie jars. "Ooh, Weiss, can I have one? Or maybe two?"

"Fine. But you can't buy the entire store; we wouldn't have anywhere to put it."

The pseudo-redhead completely ignored Weiss and continued browsing the Beacon-themed merchandise.

"Okay, Yang, Blake, let's get those book-" The heiress turned around to see her acquaintances already gone. Nowhere to be seen. "Well. I guess I can get the books on my own." She turned toward the bookshelves along the right wall of the store. "... On second thought, there's no way I can carry eight books."

"I heard you're looking for assistance," _Jaune_ declared, poking her in the shoulder.

"When did you get here?! And no, I do not need _your_ help," Weiss retorted.

"Ouch. So cold it burns. I know you need me, Snow Globe."

Jaune instantaneously grew a red hand-shaped lump out of his right cheek. "Ouch! What was that for?" But the boy's eyes widened; apparently he had put together two and two. "Wow, I did not mean that. I'm so sorry. I'd be fine with just helping; I don't need anything in return."

"Then come with me. You're my pack-horse." The heiress stomped toward a bookshelf labeled 'First-Year Texts' and started searching without waiting for Jaune's reaction.

It didn't take long to find the tome labeled 'Grimm: Know Your Prey, 21st edition, by P. Port'. Weiss glanced over her shoulder quickly and found Jaune there. "Here, hold these," she said, dumping the last four of the books into his arms. "And these," she added, picking up four copies of 'ADeeplyInsightfulManualToOurWorld'sHistoryAndHowItAffectsTheHereAndNow, 2nd edition, by Dr. B. Oobleck'.

Her mule unsteadily wobbled over to the checkout and successfully dumped the stack on the table. Weiss casually strolled along after him. "I'm paying; he's just my help for the day," she informed the cashier... who looked somewhat familiar. "You're that faunus girl in my history class, aren't you?" the Schnee asked, narrowing her eyes. The check-out lady nodded nervously. "I didn't know they let _your kind_ work here," Weiss sneered( 16).

"Hey," warned Jaune. "Watch it. Velvet is a really nice person; I ate breakfast with her this morning."

"I didn't know I gave you permission to speak, pack-horse."

Velvet interrupted them. "Um, did you want these books?"

"Yes."

"Do you, um, really need _four_ of them?" the rabbit girl added.

"There are four here for a reason."

"Wait a minute..." Jaune wondered out loud, "Aren't those the _last four_ Grimm Studies books? The whole reason I came down here is because I wanted to get one to show my family when I came home..."

 _Great. Now he's trying to get something out of me. He doesn't deserve it. … But if I let him have one, maybe he'll leave me alone. I suppose my team could_ share _, or read at different times... Fine; I'll do it._ "Okay; fine. I'll take three of each. He's paying for the fourth."

Velvet nervously scanned the books and pushed a few buttons. "Your total is three thousand nine hundred forty-seven Lien."(17)

Weiss glanced at the computer screen to make sure everything was entered in properly; faunus should never be trusted. "Do I see the word 'discount' on your screen? I don't need your apologies or your savings," Weiss growled.

"Okay... four thousand nine hundred thirty-four Lien."

The heiress pulled a credit card out of her uniform jacket's pocket and scanned it. "I'm leaving these here until my teammates come back to help me," she announced, heading off into the store.

Ruby was rather easy to find. She was the loudest customer, squealing at all the 'cute' objects she was looking at. Ruby had a strange definition of cute: Some _plates_ and simple _tee-shirts_ with weapon designs were among the trigger objects. "Come on, Ruby. I got the books and I need help to carry them."

"Ooh, okay. I'll just go get my cookie jar!" the younger girl replied. _She said_ 'my' _cookie jar like she already owns it..._

Weiss continued onward to find her other two teammates. She didn't have to go far to find Yang, who was hanging out in the magazine area at the front of the store. "Hey, Weiss," the blonde said. "I bet they don't have any new magazines in that ratty old library, so this is a pretty neat place. Well, to me."

"Yes, you can get a couple," the heiress replied. "I know you were going to ask. Come on, let's go find Blake." _And where did Ruby go? I didn't know it took that long to pick up a jar._

"She'll probably be in the book section," Yang supplied.

The brawler was right. As they came around the corner of a bookshelf, yellow and white caught sight of Blake shoving a book back onto the shelf and picking up a different one. "Blake, I have the textbooks. We should get going," Weiss said.

"Okay," the girl answered as she put the book back.

"You can get a book; I know you want one," the heiress offered.

"No, that's okay. I wouldn't want to cause any trouble," answered Blake. The girl gave Weiss a downcast look that seemed to say, _"I really want to, but I don't want to owe you anything."_

"Are you sure? Money really isn't an issue. I _asked_ for the cashier to remove the discount on the textbooks."

"Yeah. I have plenty of books, and it's already enough that's you're supplying the texts," the quiet one replied(18).

"Let's go then," Weiss said, turning back toward the front of the store. "I wonder if Ruby got her cookie jar yet..."

"I'm back, Weiss!" Ruby announced, standing in front of the heiress in a shower of rose petals. "I decided this was the best one. I named her Betty."

"Ruby, are you sure you need a cookie jar?" Yang asked. "I'm sure Betty will encounter far fewer cookies than your mouth will."

"Yang," the younger sister pouted, "I already named her. It's final."

Weiss remembered to facepalm, and led the pilgrimage to the checkout.

The heiress was pleasantly surprised to see that Jaune had, in fact, carried out his purchase and left the store. Once they arrived, Ruby handed over her 'Betty' and Yang slammed down a couple of magazines.

"I'm paying for this," Weiss said to Velvet. "And no sneaky business this time." The cashier nodded as she scanned the items, then Weiss swiped her card once more.

* * *

"Uhhhh..." Yang angrily sighed. "Already four fifty? But we just got back... Bye guys. I have to go serve detention with Rotten-Witch." The blonde slammed the door as she left.

"That's so unfair that Yang got detention..." Ruby muttered.

"Hey, it looks like they came back to finish on the floor and ceiling," Blake observed. "I can't even tell where the holes were anymore."

"I suppose that's good news," Weiss said. "I don't think _I'll_ ever be able to forget, though..."

Blake was already on her bed reading a book, and Ruby was standing in front of Weiss looking awfully energetic. "Weiss, I have an idea," the leader whispered conspiratorially with narrowed eyes and a hand covering the side of her mouth. She then opened her eyes wider and grinned evilly. "Let's get ahead on the Grimm Studies readings."

"You- you _want_ to study? Ruby Rose wants to study?"

"That's my name; don't wear it out!"

"Well that's what _I_ was planning on doing anyway," harrumphed Weiss. "Good luck."

"No, Weiss. I wanted to study _together_. As a _team_."

"Well I don't see why we can't just read the chapter on our own," the heiress commented. "Besides, Yang isn't even here."

"Yang can catch up later, that is, if she wants to," the younger girl rationalized. "But as team leader, I hereby proclaim that we are going to have a team study session right now!"

Weiss sighed and gave in. "I guess it couldn't be too bad," she conceded. She took one of the new Grimm Studies textbooks off of its shelf. "Um, but where are we going? The library?"

"Nah. We need some good team bonding time, and there's bound to be a bunch of distracting people in the library," Ruby replied. "How about we just pull up a couple chairs and stay in our room?"

"That doesn't seem very comfortable."

"Okay, okay; let's use my bed," the redhead casually suggested.

"I will _never_ put any of my weight on that makeshift sky raft. I doubt it could support all of us."

"Yours?"

Weiss's face grew red. _If three of us try to sit on my bed, they might find Mr. Fluffschnee!_ "No way!"

Ruby jumped slightly in fright; it seemed like she mistook the heiress's embarrassment for anger. "Um... Blakey?"

"What?" the girl replied in an angry tone, but her voice softened as she continued. "Sorry; I just got to a really good part. I didn't mean to yell."

"Ugh," their leader sighed. "Did you seriously tune out the entire conversation?"

"I guess so. What was the question?"

"We're going to have a team study session. Could we use your bed?"

"I-" her eyes darted to the side, but then darted back and softened. "Okay. Let's learn about Grimm."

* * *

"I'm _ba_ -ack!" Yang sang into the recently opened doorway. "Miss me?"

That didn't warrant a real answer, so Weiss asked a question of her own. "Didn't you just have detention? How can you sound so cheerful?"

"Not everyone is as cold as you, Ice Queen," Yang replied, although in a softer tone of voice than the words suggested. "Besides, Goodwitch sent me out into the Emerald Forest to keep the ursa population down. It was quite enjoyable, actually. No beowolves, just ursai... All the bears... all the punches..." she reminisced(19).

As Yang distracted herself, Weiss thought of something. "You know, Ruby," she started. "I think I could call you my first..." – the last word was a struggle to get out – "friend."

"Aww... Thanks, Weiss." She shifted on the bed to hug Weiss, but the heiress instinctively shoved the girl away. "No hugs?"

"No, not now."

"But friends hug friends," Ruby argued. "Ozpin was right, and you said it yourself: You need to learn to be a better friend."

"That's not what I said, Ruby. Hmph. I said I was going to be the beast _teammate_ ever. Ozpin is the one who used the f word."

Yang smirked. "Ooh, maybe I could go talk to Ozpin about the f word," she remarked. The girl headed right back out the still-opened door.

"Fl-blnniarghlflhobger!" "That's- Oh, by Monty..." "..."

Several centuries later, Weiss and the two teammates remembered that they were not fossilized trees and started to breathe.

"Let's... not... mention..." Ruby squeaked.

"Agreed." "Agreed."

Ruby burst into laughter. "The- the same... word!"

Weiss facepalmed. "Well, I think we're done with Grimm Studies for now."

"I know...!" the leader exclaimed. "The best way for you to learn how to be a friend... is for you to be a friend!"

"That's a terrible idea," Weiss huffed, turning her head away.

Ruby dragged Weiss into a standing position and pushed her a few feet. "Okay, Weiss. This is Blake. She's our teammate and our friend. Be friends."

"What are you _talking_ about?" the white-haired girl asked.

"No resisting! Rule Number One of Team RWBY is that we have to be friends!"chirped her leader.

"We don't _have_ team rules, Ruby," the heiress retorted.

"Well I'm the team leader and I declare that we now have team rules!" Ruby announced.

"Weiss," Blake said, "it's probably best to just listen to her and get this over with."

"Fine."

"Okay."

"So..."

"Yeah..."

"Well..."

"Um, Ruby, what are you really hoping for? This doesn't seem very effective," questioned Blake.

"You have to be friends. I'm not letting you go until you're friends."

The two other girls looked at Ruby with quite the perplexed expressions.

"Ruby, I think we're already friends," Weiss said. "See? We're not killing each other or anything."

"Yeah, and I'm not insulting her father's company in front of a bunch of strang- Crap. That's not what I meant to say..."

Weiss glared at the black-haired girl. "What do you have against the Schnee Dust Corporation?"

"Look, just forget I said anything, okay?" Blake requested as she held the textbook in front of her face to defend herself.

"Guys, this isn't being friends," the leader interrupted with her stern voice. "I doubt you've said a total of fifty words to one another."

"And that's why I don't think this is a good idea, Ruby," said Weiss. "I didn't _ask_ to be on this team."

"Weiss..."

The heiress stomped out of the room and kept walking until she found herself on a bench in one of the gardens between the dormitory and the administrative tower.

 _Stupid Ruby. Stupid Blake. Stupid Yang. I thought things were going well. The day started off terribly, and then it got better, but now we're back to... this. Maybe Ozpin wasn't right. I don't know how these people could possibly be 'the most promising group he's seen in years'._

"Hey, Weiss," said Blake, sliding onto the bench next to the heiress.

"I didn't ask for your presence," the white-haired girl huffed.

Blake didn't seem to care. "I think you're right... I think our team really isn't all that great right now."

"Are you trying to make me feel better? If so, you're not succeeding."

"I also think you were right when you said that we're already friends. You see, you're alive right now, and... the only reason I came to Beacon... was to kill you."

Weiss's face drained of what little blood it had been showing. "That's... That can't- That's not funny, Blake! I believed you for a second there."(20)

"Sorry," the other girl said, placing a hand on Weiss's shoulder. "You know, your father doesn't have the best reputation" – Weiss glared at Anti-Schnee, but Blake held a finger out to shush the heiress – "but you're not the same person. I think you'd be a better CEO, even now."

"How can you say that, Blake? I'm a- a b- what Yang said, Ice Queen."

"To continue your metaphor" – Weiss rolled her eyes; _literature_ references – "you've _already_ thawed a little. When you first met Ruby, you didn't say a single nice thing. Now you've rearranged a room with us, and you made up with Ruby and even bought them some things... I think you're already being a friend, but you just don't know how to handle it yet."

"That's... It might be. I was a little... relaxed, until Ruby starting pressuring me."

"I think this is just a case where only an outside observer can see things how they really are."

"Weiss! Blake!" Yang called out to them from across the garden. "What are you two doing out here?"

"Ruby was trying to _make_ me be 'a better friend', and it didn't go so well," Weiss explained.

"That must have been awfully fast, Yang," Blake remarked. "I didn't take you for the type."

"That's not funny, Blake. We _talked_. It was a nice, rational, deeply philosophical conversation about the f word – exactly what I said before I left. Of course it was fast; there's only so much to say about a single word. Although, our views on the word don't exactly agree too well... He kind of snapped when I waltzed into his office and said, 'Hey, Prof, what do you think about f***?' Ozpin said he thinks it's a shame that there have to be words to so broadly express negativity... Whatever. I guess it broadened my horizons a little."

Weiss's jaw was hanging open, and when she looked over, so was Blake's. The heiress had to use her hand to close it again. "Do you have no filter?" she snapped.

"Nope, don't think so. Don't you love me?"

"Humph. Hardly."

"Well, let's get back to the dorm. I bet Ruby will be crying in a corner because her precious team is falling apart."

It turned out to be a... ...decent... evening.

* * *

"I barely saved you from them. But I think they're getting better. Or maybe I'm just getting to know them better," Weiss whispered into her pillow. "Well, anyway, I'd better sleep. Goodnight, Mr. Fluffschnee."

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

(1) Clearly not following the canon "good morning". They already did some unpacking and such. I personally wouldn't want to move in and leave everything in heaps, plus they had time to burn that I wanted to explain in a reasonable manner. Perhaps the team formation ceremony was later than I said and they would just instantly go to bed, but I get to decide since details are sparse.

(2) I used their theme songs. I don't know why you'd complain. This footnote is mostly to say that I don't own them so my butt is covered legally. Jeff Williams and/or Rooster Teeth do/does own them. The first one is Yang's theme song, "I Burn". The second one is Weiss's theme song, "Mirror, Mirror".

(3) ["****," said Cardin]: Insert word of your choice here. I'm sure your imaginations are plenty powerful. It doesn't make a difference to me which word Cardin chooses. Don't worry; I'm not going to make you write the entire story for me. XD

(4) Sorry; I think I may have gone a bit overboard. Yang likes to be angry, but this probably isn't quite justifiable. At least it's also cathartic to the readers. … The beatings will continue until morale improves.

(5) Should be obvious, but just to be safe... "Shi- _window panes._ " is Yang starting to swear, but then exerting control over her tongue and using a complete nonsense term instead.

(6) towel bars: Omitted last chapter, but mostly because that would've been too much detail about things other than the room's layout. Don't know about you, but I wouldn't appreciate being stalked in the shower, and I don't think Weiss would either. Weiss has the upper-right towel bar because she's the second letter of the team.

(7) Once again, I remind you that Weiss's point of view is limited. It also means that the narrations I give that could potentially be in her perspective don't necessarily reflect _my_ perspective. Anyway, the construction stuff, she missed them cutting around the hole to make it into a reasonable shape so it could be patched properly, and once she was gone they would clearly have to seal the cracks with drywall tape and mud. Two repairmen also patched up Team CRDL's room.

(8) Port Hall: I figured buildings may as well have names, like buildings at actual universities. I don't expect Rooster Teeth to ever give them actual names, so I decided to do so. Yes, that is Professor Port's last name. Keep reading the chapter for more information.

(9) It _is_ proper to exclude the closing quotation mark when starting a new paragraph that continues the same unbroken piece of dialogue, in case you were wondering. I didn't need to mention or do this before.

(10) Hooray for filling in the blanks in his story!

(11) No, word processor. "Axe" is a perfectly acceptable spelling for the word. Also, you'll notice that I didn't have Weiss change clothes. I think Monty probably just didn't have school uniform Weiss animated with a weapon.

(12) Deviation from canon. There is absolutely no way that her weapon would be _stuck_ at the angle that is shown unless the thing spun in a clockwise circle constantly to pull back on the blade and push forward on the hilt. As it is, all she would need to do is pull back on the hilt end... So I had her flip completely over the boarbatusk (she doesn't know what it's called yet), which also makes more sense than somehow ending up at its side, and then lose the weapon directly because of the bad wrist angle. … The way they animated it, the Grimm disarmed her by turning its head the one direction that would _help_ her get the weapon out.

(13) apparently hearing the truth from two sources was too much for her: Once again, I tout the horn that screams, "This is Weiss's interpretation!" (… Try to picture that – blowing a horn and seeing it literally open its end like a mouth to scream.)

(14) Unfortunately, I wanted to replicate Oobleck's speaking style in writing, so all the words will be smashed together. Difficult to read? Good; I'm doing my job. Also: It isn't clear who's in the history class. Cardin, Jaune, Weiss, Blake, Pyrrha, Velvet, and Dove(?) are shown in the classroom, but Nora and Ren also come out of the room at the end of the scene (which is in Jaunedice, not The Badge and the Burden, originally). This causes me to believe that RT just didn't want to animate everyone there, but all students do have to take the class, although most finish it in their first year. (I guess Velvet either failed or took other classes earlier and this later.)

(15) I guess it's both a "sorry" and a "you're welcome" for skipping the individual classes. I figured you've had enough of the classes in this chapter, plus I didn't really feel like making OCs to be the instructors. I might mention the classes, or even go into a lot of detail, later. Commentary on ideas for this is welcome.

(16) There will be a reason for Velvet to be a cashier other than just to fill an opening in my story. Probably obvious what it is, but I may as well notify youse.

(17) 3947 Lien: There are no official mentions of how much a Lien is worth, so I went with this. (If there ever is an official equivalence, I'll go back and edit this and any later mentions.) To get this number, I figured that since there are hardly any objects that cost less than $0.25 USD other than single parts for building things, that could be a decent lowest denomination. Four Lien per USD would eliminate the need for decimal amounts. Then I estimated that an overpriced college textbook can be a bit over $200 USD, multiplied by 4 to get to Lien, and multiplied by 6 books to get 4800 Lien, and figured I may as well mess with the exact number a bit. Boom. Numbers. 4934. But then I decided Velvet would offer a 20% discount... so 3947 L.

(18) Huh. I realized that I'm unintentionally transitioning to kinder mental nicknames for Weiss's friends. No reason to not keep it that way. Also, this is a display that Blake doesn't want anything to do with money... It's not just some strange grudge thing.

(19) Yang isn't my favorite, but I don't derive any sadistic pleasure from needlessly having her be psychologically tortured. I hope the 'change of heart' about her punishment is a welcome surprise.

(20) woOoOoooOoOOooo footnote of DOOM... What the heck am I trying to say here? Am I tricking you, or tricking me, or tricking you into thinking I'm tricking you when I'm actually tricking you about tricking you...? And now I have you nice and confused and you can continue thinking whatever you were thinking before because there clearly aren't spoilers in the footnote... Or are there? Or is it a spoiler that there are no spoilers? Or am I just trying to confuse you again? If you actually read this entire footnote, I laugh in your general direction.

I guess if enough of you want it (as in, like 5 or more PMs/reviews that directly ask for it – no, I'm not fishing for reviews; I'm fine with whatever I have), I could write a 'deleted scene' for Yang's chat. I really think your imaginations should be good enough to hold you over on that, though... But don't think I'm not capable of delivering.

Also... You're welcome to the White Rose shippers, but this is probably the best you're going to get, so unless you're fine with THA RAINBOWWW FRIEEEEEEEENDSHP or BW, you might not have much reason to continue... unless you realize that plot trumps (all) most. (By the way, this isn't to the real plot yet, if you haven't figured that out. It's mostly an analysis of canon with some extra lols and a couple tweaks and additions.)

Also-also... Cookie cookie cookie cookie... Bear, bear, bear. The plot of Mr. Fluffschnee thickens...

I'd also like to note that the intro cinematic for Season/Volume 3 is on the RT site, but I didn't see it until the 17th because I was writing! Looks like Team QRTS (or some other permutation, but that makes the most sense to me) is 99% official and Raven is almost certainly Yang's mother, or at the very least something like a godmother.

 **Chapter Synopsis:** Morning stuff. Grimm Studies – Weiss and Ruby can haz fallout. Ozpin saves the day. Day one of Oobleck's class... ever wonder what it might be like? Well you just found out if you read this chapter, or you can find out now if you haven't yet. Book shopping. Team study time. Detention. Friends? Not friends. Friends!

 **Changes Synopsis:** Like the whole thing... Ruby and Weiss still have their big argument about leadership directly after Port's class and it's still mostly resolved that day, but there's a ton of stuff before and after, and I described other classes a bit.

 **Next update:** Lol if I know. Why do I have this section? However, it seems that writing has become my number one activity rather than reading or gaming, so it's feasible that I may be popping these out faster than expected. This one was only three days after the previous one, after all. Result: 5 days.


	3. Bloodthirsty Thursday

Chapter 3 – Bloodthirsty Thursday

 **Author's Note:**

Useless statistics: Chapter finished October 21, 2015. Published October 22, 2015 (woohoo, on an actual bloodthirsty Thursday). Total word count: 10970. Body word count: 8171 (75%). Writing Time: 17h32m. Chapter Rating: T.

Changed the format of the footnotes: In the story, they are formatted as underlined, _exponentiated_ numbers enclosed in parentheses. I felt that would make them less distracting. (EDIT: Nope. FF doesn't accept that format. I'll keep writing it that way, but youse won't be able to see it like that.) In the footnotes, multiple-topic references have (a) and (b) for the different topics _after_ the number in parentheses so it isn't so difficult to skip the topics you don't care about. It was probably hard to sift through with only one combined paragraph for each footnote.

The Sarcastic Prophecy of Friendship is coming true. (It was revealed in chapter 1.) School supplies: Check. The other parts of the prophecy will have to wait until Season 2 events. In the meantime, here's Chapter 3, "Bloodthirsty Thursday":

* * *

"Goooooooood morning, Weiss!" announced the namesake of Team RWBY.

"Can't you just... _not_ wake me up rudely every morning, Ruby?" the heiress groaned.

"Nope!"

"Ruby, I don't think you're being a good friend... Friends listen to one another, and you didn't listen when I told you to _not wake me up_."

"Nope! Friends know what's best for each other, and today, waking you up was the best option."

"Five more minutes, Ruby? Please?"

"Nope! Yang and Blake are already all ready; I gave you way more than five minutes." Weiss didn't see Ruby's sadistic smirk since her face was still buried in her pillow, so she took Ruby's next words seriously. "Plus, if you wait five more minutes you'll be late for class!"

The heiress screamed as if she was experiencing the end of the world. Her breath hitched, briefly cutting off the wail, as she quickly made sure Mr. Fluffschnee was properly hidden under her pillow, but then the shriek continued as she leaped out of bed as if she had just realized it was made of lava.

There was a knock on their door, and Ruby walked off to answer it. Meanwhile, Weiss picked up her Scroll and looked at the time: It was seven thirty-one. But wasn't class at nine-thirty today? ...No! Ruby had _tricked_ her.

"Is everything okay, Ruby?" Pyrrha asked, stepping into Room 413. "It sounded like someone got seriously injured."

"Pyrrha! This never happened," Weiss yelled.

"Sorry! I'll be going now. Have a nice morning," the redhead answered.

"And _you_ , Ruby. How could you? We have two whole hours until class starts! I'm beginning to think that you _don't_ want me to be your friend," accused Weiss.

"I'msorryWeiss!" the pseudo-redhead hastily apologized. "It's just that everyone else was awake and I want to do awesome team stuff today and, well, we do have a couple hours to kill... Besides, we only went to bed at nine-thirty last night, so you've had like..." she started counting on her fingers, "umpteen jillion hours of sleep! So there's no reason that you should need to stay in bed like that and I'm really, really sorry," she ranted.

"Ruby, I'm awake now. The damage is done. Would you shut up if I gave you a cookie?"

"Ooh a cookie! Betty would like that! Oh, but if I eat it, then Betty won't actually get to have any fun... Hey, wait! You don't even have a cookie, do you?!"(2)

"Now we're even," the heiress smirked. "Didn't you say Yang and Blake are already up?"

"Yeah, they're eating breakfast right now," Ruby informed her.

"Well, if you'll remember, I'd like to shower first," Weiss replied.

"See ya in the dining hall, then, Weiss!" the speed demon announced as she zipped out of the room.

* * *

"Good morning, Weiss," Blake called from the large bench table around which Teams RWBY and JNPR were sitting(3). The heiress waved and then headed over to get her food. _Good. It seems like the others are becoming more tolerable._

There was a similar selection to her first morning at Beacon, although this time, there were even more options. Perhaps this was the standard selection, and cinnamon rolls were served on Wednesdays to cheer up the students in the middle of the week(4). The serving counters were littered with fresh fruits, breakfast sandwiches, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, toast, pancakes, french toast, waffles, crêpes, coffee cake, oatmeal, cereal, bagels, sugared grapefruit halves, fruit breads, pop tarts, and homemade granola bars, while the refrigerators were filled with fruit juices, yogurts, and milk, from skim to chocolate to soy.

 _I have to make a good first impression, so maybe I'll stick with something dignified,_ Weiss thought, grabbing a couple of crêpes, which she smeared with a bit of chocolate hazelnut spread( 5). She also took a grapefruit half, a bottle of skim milk, and a cup of blueberry yogurt, plus the necessary silverware, then left to find her seat.

As Weiss neared the table, she heard "... And then I hammered it real good and I never saw it again... I wonder where it went? That one was one of my favorites..."

"Nora," said Ren, "you shouldn't have a favorite ursa. That's just not right. Besides, you really didn't need to tell this story since they were all there..."

"That's really cool, Nora! I wish I had a favorite Grimm," Ruby said as Weiss sat down in the empty spot to Yang's right. "Well, I don't have a favorite individual Grimm, but beowolves are my favorite kind of Grimm. Or... least favorite. I like killing them. Oh, hi, Weiss."

"Hello, Weiss," Pyrrha greeted from her spot directly across from Ruby.

"Good morning," the heiress greeted with a smile. She started on her crêpes.

"So Ruby, why are you into beowolves?" Pyrrha continued.

"Well... We – um, dad, Yang, Uncle Qrow, and I – we're pretty sure that a big horde of them was the cause of my mom... of her... Sorry, I can't finish."(6)

"It's okay, Ruby," comforted Yang, patting Ruby's back. "Well, probably the best way to say it is her mom is no longer with us. And I'm not talking about at Beacon."

The team leader managed to choke out a grateful, "Thanks, Yang," before tears overtook her.

"That's horrible!" Pyrrha remarked. "Nobody could save her?"

 _That's kind of sad, but I got over it fine,_ thought Weiss, refraining from speaking her mind. _Sometimes I wish mom was still alive, but we've been okay since then. Well... Father hasn't. Yeah, it really hasn't been fine. But I'm doing okay. A Schnee is strong. It's in the past._

"Um, this may be a bad time for it," Jaune prodded, "but 'her mom' would imply you're not actually sisters, Ruby and Yang?"

"Yeah; not the best time for it," Yang agreed with a scowl. Then she relaxed a bit and let out a sigh. "I'll humor the question. Her last name is Rose, for her mom," she said, pointing at Ruby, "and my last name is Xiao Long, for our dad – I never knew my mother. We're only half-sisters, but it was like we were real sisters for our whole lives, and for a while Summer was there with us. She was super-mom: Baker of cookies and slayer of monsters. I think that's why Ruby likes cookies so much more than other sweets. But one day, she didn't come back from a mission. I know she was a really careful person, so maybe they came out of nowhere. But she was also the kindest soul I've ever met... Maybe there was some reason that she needed to fight them. If there is, dad and Uncle Qrow never said."

Blake, sitting to Ruby's left, patted the girl on the head. "It happens to the best of us. I'm sorry it had to be her."

"Yeah, I'm thankful I haven't had any of that," Jaune added. "I've got a really big family. Maybe you guys could meet them sometime."

"I'd love to," Pyrrha responded without any provocation. "Yang, you said you didn't know your mother?"

The brawler shifted on the bench seat a bit. "Yeah. That's about all I can say. Dad never says anything about her, except that she's why Uncle Qrow is our uncle. She was just never there. It's like she vanished the instant I was born. Dad is pretty cool, though. It's lots of fun being around him. Well, sometimes he's a bit protective, but hey, we're here, so I suppose he did his job."

"Ren is soooooooooo much better than family!" Nora gushed. "It's like he's my dad and my big brother and my little brother and my cousin and my grandpa and my hubby and my counselor and my king and my servant and my pet sloth and my-"

"Nora!" scolded the subject of the girl's discussion.

"Sorry, _dad_. Oh, well, he's not actually any of those things, but sometimes it seems like it!"

"What about you, Blakey?" Yang asked as Weiss moved on to her yogurt. "You're always so quiet; we hardly know anything about you."

"It's best that you don't..." the girl muttered, almost too quietly to hear. Luckily, when you're training to be an important business leader, you're trained to be a careful listener. It's important to respect your partners and clients and for getting deals right, after all. "I knew them," the black-haired girl sighed. "Knew. I was forced to watch..."

Jaune choked on an egg. Ruby's recently cleared eyes wobbled with emotion and once again began leaking. Yang gasped and pounded the table with both fists. Ren's eyes widened, but he kept himself mostly in check. Nora giggled and said, "I can help! I'll smash their legs!" Pyrrha and Weiss, the only proper listeners, covered their gasps with a hand each.

"How did you make it without your parents?" Pyrrha asked, face covered in concern.

"I'd rather not talk about it. I was more or less adopted by a group of friends. Who's next?"

Ren spoke up. "My family was okay. We don't do a whole lot together and weren't all that close, but now they're gone. I always just hung out with Nora as a kid, though. We'd- she'd get into all kinds of trouble. I suppose it doesn't bother me that my family is gone since she's been with me for so long."

"Weiss?" Yang asked.

"I'm sure you've seen plenty in the news. It's hard to _not_ know anything about my family," the heiress replied. "My father is the head of the SDC, and my mother... was killed when I was a child. Father was never the same after that. It's not a very cozy family, but there are some benefits."

"Like having so much money you have to _try_ to get rid of it," Anti-Schnee interjected.

"Watch it!" the heiress objected. "I can be generous," she rationalized.

"Oh my gosh thank you so much for Betty, Weiss! I love her!" Ruby said to support the white-haired girl's claim. But as she took her next bite of breakfast, her excitement faded away. "Aw... My cereal is all mushy..."

"My bacon is getting a little cold, too," Yang added. "Maybe we should eat first and talk later."

That statement was followed by five minutes of silence – _vocal_ silence at their table. There were still plenty of sounds of clinking silverware, and a dull murmur continued from the students sitting at surrounding tables. As the meal progressed, everyone slowly trickled over to the dish return, but they all came back to the table to continue the conversation.

Weiss checked her Scroll for the time. "We still have about an hour and a quarter until class."

Yang cracked her knuckles. "Yeah, that's right. We have Dueling today. I can't wait."(7)

"It's possible that there won't even be any fighting today. It's the first day for the class," remarked the Anti-Schnee.

"Nah," dismissed Yang. "Goodwitch is definitely not that loose." She smirked. "That's what he said."

Blake and Ren shook their heads, but Nora roared with laughter. Ruby, Jaune, and Pyrrha looked rather perplexed. Weiss had to be the responsible one. "Xiao Long! Don't talk about our seniors like that. Watch your mouth."

"I can't help it that I have a golden tongue," the blonde casually replied. "Oh, my tongue is multi-talented, in case you were wondering," she added with a smirk and a raised eyebrow.

The heiress blushed and she quickly turned away. She certainly was not accustomed to people like that. Even if the businessmen she was used to were quite uncaring, at least they were civilized. "Do you have anything _productive_ to talk about?"

"Well, this is a _re_ productive topic..." the brawler answered. "Sorry. I'll withhold any more comments for the rest of the morning. So does anyone have a story or something?"

"Me! Me! Me!" Nora answered, jumping up and down with her hand raised.

"I don't think that's a very good idea," Ren commented.

"Hahaha, yeah, on second thought... Ruby, do you have any team-related stuff you invented that needs to be addressed?"

"Not yet."

"Then why did you wake me up so early today?" accused Weiss. "I thought we were doing 'team stuff'."

"Getting to know each other _is_ team stuff," the red-tipped haired girl argued.

There was an awkward silence.

"I don't hear any conversation right now, Ruby," the heiress retorted.

"Uh... What's your favorite color? If we ever get each other presents or something, that's a good thing to know. You wouldn't guess it, but mine is red."

"So is mine," Pyrrha added.

"I like blue. Light blue," Weiss said(8).

Jaune butted in to be next in line. "Go figure, I like blue too. We have a lot in common, don't we?" Unfortunately for him, he was shot down by a frosty glare.

"Pink pink pink pink PINK! Pink pink pink pink!" sang Nora as she swung her arms around, pretending to be an airplane. _Monty, she's annoying. I think I can handle Ruby, but I don't even want to_ think _about living with that girl._

"Green," Ren contributed.

"Purple," said Blake.

"Best for last!" Yang bragged. "I'm such a sunny person, it should be obvious that my favorite is nice, shiny yellow. Gold is good, too, but it doesn't count. I guess orange and red are nice fiery colors. Nothing wrong with blue, green, purple, pink, or brown either, though. I guess the whole rainbow is pretty decent, but yeah, yellow has the edge."

"*Gasp!* Guys, we're going to be late!" Ruby shouted, staring in horror at her Scroll.

Yang pulled the Scroll into her view. "No we're not, Rubes. It's still only eight thirty," she corrected.

"You don't get it, Yang!" her sister whined. "We have to be there nice and early to watch the competition. … Especially their weapons," she drooled.

"Sounds good, Ruby," Yang said. "But we'd better brush our teeth first if we want to get to use our _real_ weapons. Later, Team JNPR."

"Yeah, bye." "Bye-bye!" "Goodbye!" *Nod.*(22)

* * *

Team RWBY had arrived at the amphitheater _too_ far in advance, just as Weiss expected. There was nobody, not the professor or any students, until twenty minutes before the class was to start. Luckily, Weiss had brought a Grimm Studies textbook along for just this occasion, and the four had read until others arrived. Yang didn't seem to mind in the least that she had missed the study session the previous evening; she simply joined in where the other three had left off without any complaints.

Once other students arrived, Ruby acted as a tour guide, speculating endlessly about each weapon entering the building. The weapon fanatic knew every last detail about well over half of the weapons, but the few she didn't have completely memorized lead to more excited one-sided discussion about what _could_ be possible. One such mystery weapon was Velvet's briefcase. Was it just a briefcase? Ruby thought not. She had several dozen ideas for what could possibly be inside.

None too soon, in Weiss's opinion, Professor Goodwitch entered the large room and stepped onto the stage. "Welcome, students. Today is the first session of Dueling class. For you upper-classmen, you may remember that this means all four classes will be combined for the day. For you first-years, I would like to notify you that most Dueling class sessions will be conducted with grades separated, although once a month there will be a combined class."

Weiss hardly noticed that the rest of her team was paying attention. This class was far too important to ignore, even for the less academically-inclined students like Yang.

"Fifty percent of the grade for this class is determined by your individual and team performance, accounting for results, efficiency, teamwork, and effort," the Assistant Headmaster continued. "The other fifty percent is from written reports on current or historical duels, in or out of this class, which will be assigned at the proper times. This is not optional; you will fail the course if you do not write. We must learn from the example of others, and your learning in this manner is demonstrated through these essays.

"Now, as there is no room for negotiation in the logistics of this course, I will not ask for your questions. Many of your other classes ran short yesterday, but we will begin Dueling today. First up will be an exhibition match between teams CFVY and (9) GAZE. Please come forward."

CFVY, pronounced 'coffee', was a team that Weiss had heard a little bit about before. The leader, Coco, was obsessed with fashion, although it barely showed since school uniforms were required during class(10). The brown-haired girl opted for slacks rather than a skirt, and reclaimed a bit of individuality with the beret and sunglasses perched on her head. Her weapon was inside her briefcase... What it was, the heiress did not know. The second member, Fox, had fairly long orange hair that partially covered his face. He wore a sleeveless uniform, showing his scarred arms mounted with upward-facing blades. The third member of the team was all too familiar to Weiss: Velvet Scarlatina, the rabbit-faunus girl who was in World History and worked in the Academy Store. She was rather timid, probably because she was ashamed of her gigantic hideous ears. Her weapon was also concealed in a briefcase. The last member was Yatsuhashi. The guy was gigantic, almost two feet taller than Weiss, and was more than simply 'in shape'. However, the combination of his excessive stature and his almost buzz-cut hair made him look incredibly small-brained. He carried a huge orange two-handed sword.

The heiress had never heard of GAZE before. The screen, however, displayed their names and pictures. The leader was Gyudel(11). He was around Yang's height and his orange-tinted brown hair hung loosely down to the middle of his neck. One notable trait was his vibrant gold irises. The only combat-related thing he had was a golden shield strapped to his back. Maybe his weapon was really small and was hidden under it? The second member, Alevyí, seemed very professional in posture, but the atmosphere was ruined by her wavy pink hair that ran down to the bottoms of her shoulder blades. She wore the regular female uniform and carried a bow on her back, although a shortsword and a dagger were strapped to her hips. The 'Z' of GAZE was Zelvendis, a somewhat tall girl whose other proportions didn't quite seem appropriate for her height; she was fairly tall, but not big in any sense. She had long, straight black hair all the way down to her knees, with one small bundle hanging over each shoulder and most of it in the back. Like Coco, she wore pants rather than the typical skirt, but it looked like the size was a bit off because they didn't come all the way to her ankles. Her weapon was a fairly long sword that was so thin and flexible that it wobbled around at her hip as she walked. The fourth member was Exzys, a girl who was several inches shorter than even Weiss. She had the musculature of a kid. The other issue with the girl's apparent lack of physical strength was her choice of weapons: A large black double-sided battle axe and a huge golden maul. Each was mounted on a shaft that was certainly longer than she was tall. Why did she need two two-handed weapons, anyway? Yet her facial expression made Weiss think the girl needed to get a therapist for numerous neurological disorders: It was glued into some sort of scowl and smirk combination, giving off an air of seriousness and anger with a hint of mischief. The rest of the girl was also rather unsettling. Her shoulder-length black hair was messy, but clearly _styled_ to look that way, and she wore a rather immodest skirt with no leggings underneath. Weiss looked guiltily down at her own bare legs. _Well_ I'm _not looking for attention. And I can't help it that I'm the closest to perfection out of anyone I know_ (12) _._

Both teams arrived on stage, and Professor Goodwitch addressed both the participants and the audience. "Now just as a reminder, team duels have no restrictions on who is allowed to fight whom, so combined efforts are quite recommended. Any participant whose Aura goes to the red must drop out of the fight, and once all members of a team are down, that team has lost. Sometimes we choose to use special rules, like no Semblance, no Dust, or melee only, but this particular match will have no such restrictions. And finally, team duels can be either continuous, in which fallen members simply leave the match and everything continues like it would on a battlefield, or rotational, in which the one who brings an opponent's Aura into the red must also sit out unless their own team would be outnumbered by two or more losses. Rotational duels prevent any momentary number advantage by keeping the active team sizes equal, but there still is the overall number advantage from rotating a competitor back in. This duel will be the more realistic style, a continuous duel. If nobody has any questions, we'll begin."

There were no responses other than a couple nods or other affirmative noises and gestures, so Goodwitch stepped to the corner of the stage and pressed a button on her Scroll to start the countdown on a screen on the back wall.

 **10...**

Weapons were drawn: Coco and Velvet held their handbags, Fox put his hands up in a fighting stance with the blades facing outward, and Yatsuhashi drew his sword but held it point-down in front of him in the typical "you shall not pass" pose. Gyudel must have had weird handles on his shield because he held it to his side with both hands, and the edges, rather than the flat, pointed out. _It seems to be a cutting weapon. That doesn't seem practical, but we'll see._ Alevyí nocked a shiny metallic arrow but held the bow in relaxed position at her side. Zelvendis drew her rapier and held it in a non-guarding position across and behind her body. Exzys... was Exzys. She made a strange waving gesture, probably activating her Semblance, then reached toward the floor and dragged upward. Bits of rock climbed up her body, floating around her legs and arms, and the girl drew both monstrous weapons, the axe in her right and hammer in her left, waving them around like cardboard cutouts.

 **4... 3... 2... 1... 0.**

Gyudel stepped behind his allies and stood very still, then Yatsuhashi crumpled to the floor holding his head. The boy's Aura was still in the green... A mental assault?

Fox made a dash for GAZE's leader, but his progress was significantly slowed by a steady stream of arrows from Alevyí. When he got near enough to Gyudel, Alevyí drew her other weapons and guarded her leader against the redhead's slashes.

Meanwhile, Exzys rushed Coco. Velvet used ice Dust to slow the psychopath's progress(13), but the girl broke through the ice bindings fairly quickly with her clearly unnatural strength. Zelvendis was also approaching rapidly. Soon, Velvet had to stop hampering Exzys in order to defend herself from the rapier girl's slashes. However, a briefcase was not the best defensive tool, and her opponent's weapon was very mobile and had a long reach. Coco stepped in to help, and Zelvendis went on the defensive.

"V, we need to get Yatsuhashi back in action, now," Coco commanded. "He's our primary line of defense."

Velvet nodded and casted a larger freeze, giving the two time to get to the other side of the stage, where Fox was still fighting with Alevyí. The two were both in the low green. Coco transformed her handbag into a Gatling gun and began firing at Gyudel. Several hits connected, and his attention returned to the present.

However, Velvet called out to Coco to duck, and as she did, Zelvendis swiped the beret off her head. "You did _not_ just mess with the hat!" Coco turned and opened fire on the swordswoman and got in a few hits, depleting her Aura to yellow, before the girl moved out of the way, running backward into Fox, who was too engrossed in his duel with Alevyí.

Fox and Zelvendis fell to the ground with the boy trying to land blades-down on top of his opponent. However, he flinched – Gyudel was staring directly at the young man – and the girl had an opportunity to slide out of the way, pushing off of him with one hand and cutting across his gut with the sword hand.

With Gyudel's attention on Fox, Velvet swung her bag at the back of his head, but Alevyí parried the strike with her dagger. Yatsuhashi had arrived at GAZE's end of the stage and tripped the pink-haired girl with his sword, then Velvet froze her to the floor.

Coco backed off to get some breathing room, as her weapon did not operate very well in close range, but was too slow to raise her weapon when she saw Exzys arrive on the scene, swinging her hammer at Velvet's head. However, Yatsuhashi _was_ able to see the attack and parried it with his greatsword.

Zelvendis, now standing, had the opportunity to make several precise cuts to Fox's neck, sides, and back. The boy's Aura fell into the red and Professor Goodwitch levitated him off of the stage.

However, Coco now had her bearings and shot at Zelvendis, the super-powered bullets of her Gatling gun ripping through the rest of the girl's Aura, and the long-haired girl was put out of action as well.

Exzys swung her second weapon at Velvet's back, instantly bringing the girl's Aura from high green to medium yellow, and Gyudel, now without a mental war waging, stepped in to slice across her side with his shield.

Yatsuhashi's sword finally came free of Exzys's hammer, pinning it to the ground. He kicked at the berserker, but she molded some rock from the floor into a wall to stop the attack in its tracks.

Velvet's Aura was low, so she did her best to get out of the central brawl. She shot a couple successful lightning bolts at Gyudel, whose Aura was now in the high yellow.

Coco shifted her gun a bit and sprayed bullets at Gyudel, who deflected most of them with his shield and stepped behind the off-balance Yatsuhashi.

Exzys threw her hammer at Alevyí, breaking the girl out of her ice prison, and threw her axe at Velvet, who was still focusing on blasting Gyudel with lightning. Velvet's Aura was depleted and was removed from the arena.

Yatsuhashi turned his head and elbowed Gyudel in the side – the young man currently had his shield turned toward Coco – then followed up with a downward slash, which made contact with the stunned foe and dropped his Aura to red.

However, this created an opening for yet another 'revenge kill' as Alevyí thrust both weapons into Yatsuhashi's back, putting him out of the fight.

But the chaos didn't end there: Coco shot at Alevyí, and the bullets finished her off.

Only two competitors were left: Coco and Exzys. On one hand, Coco had a distance advantage and Exzys's weapons were scattered around the arena, but on the other hand, Exzys had rock-solid defenses. The psychopath charged at Coco without retrieving her weapons, propelling a wall of stone in front of her like a wave at the surface of an ocean. CFVY's leader was completely unable to make any progress with her gun, so she switched it back into a handbag.

Exzys didn't seem to care. She stepped in, blocking Coco's arm when she swung with her bag and planting a rock-reinforced punch to the fashionista's stomach, then followed up with an upward punch to the girl's face. Coco was dazed from the pain, and it was a simple affair for Exzys to finish her off with a few more punches(14). The psycho cheered with enthusiasm – and bloodthirsty glee – although her voice was a bit quieter than Weiss expected – it fit her first-glance appearance more than her personality.

Goodwitch walked back onto the stage with the red-Aura competitors trailing after. "Thank you to CFVY and GAZE for volunteering for the demo today," the professor said. "And congratulations, GAZE. Well fought. Please return to the stands."

The teams shook hands and exchanged encouraging words. "Great fight, CFVY!" Exzys shouted across the stage once the teams were walking away from each other. She then jumped at Zelvendis, who caught her, and kissed the taller girl – the jump was rather necessary. Weiss had to look away, but Yang joined a good percentage of the school in cheering and whistling. Exzys grinned like a wolf, but Zelvendis let the psychopath down to the floor and tried to turn away from the crowd.

"Come," Gyudel commanded. "We're done here."

As the teams continued toward the stands, Goodwitch once again addressed the students. "Next we will pair random first-year students for one-on-one fights, unofficially welcoming the one to the winners' club and publicly shaming the other. But first, I'd like to take a five minute break for you to discuss this recently concluded fight with your teams."

* * *

There had been six one-on-one duels already, but none were particularly interesting to Weiss(15). "Next up will be... (16)" announced Goodwitch, "Blake Belladonna against Russel Thrush."

"Go Blake! Represent!" Ruby cheered.

"Yeah! Blake!" Yang added.

Weiss really didn't have anything to say. Hopefully her teammate wouldn't embarrass the the rest of them; hopefully she'd actually be rather competent. But... not too competent. That might make Weiss look bad.

Russel... Why was that name familiar?

Blake made her way to the stage, as did a kid with a bruise-littered face and a mohawk. _Oh._ _That's the creep who fell through the roof of Room 413,_ my room _, yesterday._ Yang already gave the brainless slug a beating, but it wouldn't hurt – that is, for her or her team – for him to get another.

Nods were exchanged. They already knew the routine – anything goes, other than outside help or leaving the arena. Blake drew Gambol Shroud in two sections and Russel drew both daggers.

 **10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... 0.**

The opponents closed the gap quickly then circled warily. Neither gave an opening until Russel ran out of patience, lunging in with a predictable upward angling thrust. Blake easily sidestepped and brought the sheath end up toward the boy's vulnerable stomach. Apparently he wasn't _completely_ useless, as he did block the attack with his second weapon. But his momentum was focused into his right dagger, which was still hanging in front of him where Blake used to be, and the girl had a second weapon. She pivoted to face him and used the katana to cut at his knees, and his balance had not yet recovered enough for him to move out of the way. He fell hard.

Blake didn't hesitate to continue slashing at her downed opponent, who eventually rolled away after having his Aura lowered to yellow. Weiss's teammate was still untouched. If Russel was any good, this would be the time for him to make a comeback. He probably wasn't any good, but he did do a couple backflips that didn't accomplish anything. Blake transformed Gambol Shroud into a gun and shot at him, which made him backflip more, evading a decent portion of the shots. She then threw the weapon at the acrobatic idiot. He dodged, but the RWBY representative made the weapon shoot to wrap the tether around him. He tripped and once again fell, and Blake dragged him across the floor rather than walking over to him. Russel tried stop himself by gripping the floor, but there was nothing to hold onto on the hard stone stage, so he slid unceremoniously toward his opponent. His Aura slowly declined farther into the yellow.

Blake gave one last sharp tug as the disgraced boy neared her, and she used the extended momentum to move in while he was unable to react. She sliced him from groin to chin with the cleaver section of her weapon, lowering his Aura to the red, then pulled free the gun portion of Gambol Shroud and sheathed her weapon as she walked off the stage.

"Well," said Professor Goodwitch, sounding slightly surprised, "that was a rather fast duel. Congratulations, Blake. Russel, you may want to practice a bit more in your free time."

"Great job, Blake!" congratulated Ruby as Blake neared the team's location in the stands. "You didn't let the team down!"

"Yeah, Blakey!" contributed Yang.

"I'm not disappointed," the heiress added.

Any further conversation about the match was cut off by the professor. "Now, next up will be... Yang Xiao Long against Weiss Schnee(17)."

The heiress's jaw dropped. She was skilled herself, but Yang was in no way untalented. The blonde was a bit reckless, which _could_ give Weiss an advantage, but that played into the girl's Semblance. She seemed to get deadlier when she was angry, or hurt, or maybe both. So maybe she could have to play it safe until there was an opportunity to score a 100-0 combo... but Yang doubtlessly had much better endurance if it was going to be a waiting game. It would certainly be a challenge.

"Oh, cool!" Yang cheered. "Let's have the best fight ever, okay, Weissy? This is going to be so much fun!" _Yep, she's not worried at all._

"Good luck, Weiss," Ruby chirped. "You'll need it." _Thanks for the confidence boost, Ruby._

"This ought to be interesting," Blake commented. _How reassuring._

The heiress took a deep breath in, then stood and headed to the stage. Yang trailed along after her after exchanging a few more words with the other two teammates.

Once the two made it to the stage and stood on the marks, Goodwitch asked, "Ready?" Both girls nodded and readied their weapons, and the countdown began(18).

 **10.** _Yang will probably charge right_ **9.** _away. That seems to be her style._ **8.** _Calm your breathing,_ **7.** _Weiss._ **6.** She inhaled... **5.** And exhaled. **4.** _Stupid heart!_ **3.** _Beat slower!_ **2.** _Calm..._ **1.** _Ready...!_ **0.** _Go!_

Sure enough, Yang charged in, yelling at the top of her lungs and shooting rounds out of Ember Celica. Weiss picked off the projectiles with fire Dust. Once the blonde got into melee range, Weiss sidestepped to her own left, cutting right to left with Myrtenaster so the weapon(19) stayed between the fencer and the brawler during the maneuver. That was also Yang's right side, which was occupied with throwing a punch, so the blonde didn't have time to block with her gauntlets; the slash made contact, slightly lowering Yang's Aura reserves.

Yang went with her angular momentum, spinning counterclockwise then stepping forward to lead into a horizontal swipe with her left fist. It was a fast attack, but the heiress was in a balanced position that allowed her to hop back and avoid it. But when Yang continued stepping forward into more punches, Weiss was not quick enough to do anything but parry and retreat, and that would surely not benefit her in the long run.

The heiress stopped her retreat as she formed a plain glyph as a barrier in front of her. Yang pulled her last punch but still ran into the blue design, although that just annoyed the blonde. She tightened her fists and released flames to express her frustration and channel her Aura, then slammed a fist directly into the center of the glyph, shattering it.

Weiss was prepared for this result, and hopped into the air using two glyphs, one as a stair and the other as a perch. She dismissed the first glyph, then shot a few orbs of fire Dust at Yang. The brawler didn't even attempt to block those, and the attacks looked like they were swallowed into the girl's body. _Okay, I got the message. No fire dust._

With her new power boost, Yang leaped up toward her opponent to "dethrone" her. Weiss saw it coming and knocked the blonde back down with a glyph. She counterattacked as the other girl was recovering on the floor, launching several globs of ice Dust. Yang recovered quickly enough to shatter the first, but when she struck the second one it was soft enough to glue itself onto the the brawler's hand. A final ice ball made it through to Yang's feet, holding the girl to the floor.

The mage then turned Myrtenaster's dial to yellow and blasted Yang with several bolts of lightning. They connected, but Yang was either resistant to the magic or had enough Aura that the damage it caused didn't decrease her Aura by a large percentage. She was at low green. Well... All Weiss needed to do was continue attacking from her safe spot and she could win.

However, before any more bolts of lightning were launched, Yang grew even more angry. The flames melted her icy restraints and she once again jumped toward Weiss.

 _Darn it! I'm not taking her down quickly enough; I should've known that would happen. But she's so predictable... Glyph_.

Weiss formed another barrier glyph to stop Yang, but this time the brawler's right fist was extended and she torpedoed through it, barely slowing down. The heiress scrambled to cast another, but it was too little, too late; Yang easily blasted through that one as well. Because of the timing of the second glyph, the blonde was able to tackle Weiss off of her platform before the white-haired girl could react.

She hit the ground, _hard_. But that was clearly not her only problem at the moment. Yang was on top of her, throwing punch after punch at her.

Weiss had never been in a fist fight as a child; she was far too well-protected and isolated to encounter any other children who would be allowed to express any violence toward her. And in her fencing training, they always wore padded armor, reducing any hard whacks into tiny aches and bruises. Thus, the heiress was having quite the learning experience at the moment – it hurt physically more than anything she'd experienced before. She couldn't help letting out several screams of pain.

But... _A Schnee is strong. I can't sit down and lose._ Weiss twisted her body and shoved Yang off of her, then stood as quickly as possible. The screen showed that her Aura was in the middle of the yellow. She had to change things quickly... but how?

As Yang began standing, Weiss slashed left-to-right at the girl's neck. It didn't go so well; the brawler simply grabbed Myrtenaster and twisted in an attempt to disarm the fencer. That was clearly not in the heiress's plans, so rather than releasing her weapon, she allowed herself to be thrown and rolled out of it. However, Yang was already after her once more.

Weiss intended to use her reach advantage, so she made many small slashes and jabs at her opponent. Yang blocked many of the attacks, but not all, and her Aura steadily decreased. However, the brawler was not to be underestimated. Her Semblance's effect grew steadily and she became faster, blocking all the attacks now, and used the strength boost to deflect Myrtenaster way off course rather than making it just miss her.

Then the brawler made her move. She let a thrust get through her defenses and graze her side, but she instead closed the distance between the two combatants. Weiss was unable to return her rapier quickly enough to ward off the advance and once again met a world of pain. A right hook met with her temple and she _bounced_ off the floor. The heiress's blurry, star-filled eyes were able to barely make out that her Aura was in the low yellow. But she wasn't safe; the duel was not over. She was on her hands and knees, barely supporting herself, but luckily still had a hold of her Myrtenaster.

Yang charged in once again. The heiress turned toward the sound – she couldn't make anything out with her eyes – as she blinked a few times in an attempt to reclaim her vision. When she finally opened her eyes and could see more than spots, Yang was under two meters away. There was no way Weiss could get away; she had to make a stand. The fencer gritted her teeth and lunged forward with Myrtenaster's tip.

Yang raised her right fist for a straight punch at Weiss's face.

Both attacks connected. Weiss fell backward clutching her nose as Myrtenaster was blasted backward out of her hands from the direct impact with Yang's Aura.

The heiress heard both a clang and a thump against the ground next to her. The first was obviously Myrtenaster, but the second...? She forced her eyes open to see Yang laying next to her.

"You got me good," the brawler acknowledged. "Thank Monty for the Aura Dissipation effect, or I'd be dead(20)."

Weiss looked up through her tears to see the scoreboard displaying a tiny sliver of Aura for herself and a completely depleted Aura for Yang. "Sure," she groaned.

Professor Goodwitch made her way over to the RWBY members and helped the two get on their wobbly feet. "Very well fought, you two," she praised, handing Myrtenaster back to Weiss. "But you'd better get back to your friends now; we have more matches left for the day."

 _Friends. The more I hear it, the more true it feels, but how could I possibly be friends with these three? The first day... and the second day... were_ so _bad. Even yesterday wasn't much better._ "Hey, Yang," the heiress croaked as the two shambled back to the stands, "do you think we're really friends? It usually doesn't feel like it."

"Yeah; why not?" the blonde rasped in response. "Friends can fight, and get in arguments, and tease each other. But it's all temporary. Everything gets better with time. … Well, usually. But you're already warming up to us and we're warming up to you. Don't sweat it; we're going to be like _family_ by the time we graduate if I have anything to say about it."

"I suppose it could be nice if you ended up being right," the white-haired girl agreed. "But for now, we should probably concentrate on getting back to Ruby and Blake without passing out."

Yang attempted to crack a smirk. "Or passing away," the brawler added.

"Oh, shush." It was only a halfhearted warning. Maybe Weiss really was starting to be okay with her frie- teammates.

Yellow and white trudged on in silence. The next match was announced, but Weiss didn't really care about it at this point; she just wanted to sit down and rest.

Luckily, the heiress got her wish before too long. She slumped down onto a bench next to Ruby and closed her eyes. Unfortunately, she couldn't close her ears, and the false redhead wasn't about to pass up the opening. "You two did great! I'm really proud of you, Weiss." Yang gave Ruby a displeased look. "Sure, you too, Yang, but I already know you." Her sister sighed. "Our team is really awesome!" the leader finished.

"Excuse me, Ruby," Weiss said suddenly, "but do I still have a face?"

"Yeah; of course you do. It's not even bruised," she replied.

"As _gorgeous_ as ever," brown-nosed the team prankster, earning her a sharp elbow from Blake. "Aw, come on Blakey; you know it's true." There was a slightly less enthusiastic elbow this time( 21).

Everyone decided to continue watching the duels. Well, almost everyone...

* * *

Weiss woke up – _By Oum, how dare I fall asleep?!_ – to Ruby shaking her shoulders. "Wakey, wakey, Sleeping Beauty." _Wonderful. Now everyone is teasing me._ "It's one o' clock; class just finished( 23). Let's go eat."

The heiress moaned and opened her eyes, but she stood up without any further encouragement. "I feel like I could eat a whole stegosaurus..." she muttered(24).

"I heard they have fresh strawberries today," Ruby drooled. "And PB&J sandwiches or some junk like that, but I can just fix those up with cookies."

Weiss contributed her trademark facepalm to the conversation and started walking toward an exit.

As the team walked to the dining hall, Ruby pestered Weiss with details of fights she'd missed. "There was this one guy with a _fire sword_ , but his team in the stands looked like a bunch of losers and I guess he wasn't too great either. It was a blowout. It was so disappointing!"

"One girl had a helmet with a big spike on it. That was weird. She tried to headbutt her opponent, but it was usually pretty easy to avoid. She lost, too... It might be nice to have that against Grimm, though."

"That reminds me: Team CFVY also lost, but I think Coco's awesome gun would do wonders against a horde of oncoming Grimm. Too bad it's so slow for arena combat. Well, GAZE wasn't _bad_ either."

"There was a weird lady with a spiky jacket. She took it off and swung it around like a flyswatter, but unlike all the other weird weapons, she actually won! Isn't that great?"

"One dude had like twenty swords and he just threw them all. It didn't work out so well in the end, but I think that would be a really fun idea! … Ooh! I could dedicate next summer to making extra copies of Crescent Rose and then I could throw them!"

"Flamethrowers just aren't fair; I want one, too. I wonder if I could attach one to Crescent Rose... She might not like that, though. But what if she actually would like it? Wow, I should ask her. Crescent Rose, do you think it would be okay to have a flamethrower? _No, I don't think that's so great. I'm really pretty how I am now. Don't ruin me like that._ Aw, okay. You win this time. Just remember it was your idea the next time we're fighting a horde of several hundred Grimm and we wish you had a flamethrower."

"And then the one chick used, like, bombs! I didn't know that was even allowed, and how does she stay stocked?"

Blake interrupted the monologue. "We're here, Ruby. Less talking; more eating."

The heiress lost track of most of the rest of the day. Everyone except Ruby took another nap in the afternoon, and afterward there was some more reading for Grimm Studies and World History. Yang attended her "detention", then they ate a late supper and went back to their room, where Yang told the team _far_ too many bad jokes. They ended up going to bed fairly early since Weiss was too annoyed to put up with Yang's jokes for more than about an hour and a half and nobody had any other great ideas.

 _My teammates are pretty good at fighting, and they're somewhat helpful when they need to be, I suppose. Maybe this will work out. Goodnight, Mr. Fluffschnee._

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

(1) You'll notice that there actually isn't a (1) in the body of this chapter. You're welcome.

(2) (a) Betty: In case you have short-term memory loss, Betty is Ruby's new Beacon-shaped cookie jar. It was introduced last chapter, and Ruby would yell at me for calling Betty 'it'. Also, please observe the first footnote of this chapter – it's important.  
(b) In other news, I had two ideas for Ruby to get Weiss out of bed, so I used a random number generator again. I don't like picking which one seems like it would be the most effective or the most humorous; hopefully this will add a balance between realism (most effective method) vs. storytelling (most catastrophic method). I'll use the other method later.

(3) Used RNG to determine whether ninja observational skills would activate or not, and for the seating order which will come along later. Regarding the seating, I didn't want to completely do away with the canon dining hall atmosphere, so there are still long tables, but there are also circular tables mixed in and there are the booths along the walls, plus the food serving area is in the building.

(4) Wednesday: Monday was move-in, Tuesday was initiation, Wednesday was the first day of classes, and now it's Thursday. Getting closer to completing the first week... And no, that's not one of the weeks mentioned in the title. This is just random crap that I decided to throw together to make a little character development and show some more classes as I continued to wade through the meager events of Volume 1.

(5) chocolate hazelnut spread: We don't mention Earth brands here on Remnant ;)

(6) Well, I wanted to start the conversation with a crazy Nora story, and this is where it ended up. I suppose it is rather important in terms of the friends getting to know one another, not that it isn't weird timing, but I'll keep it.

(7) I have them on an alternating days schedule. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are the more educational classes, and Tuesday and Thursday are only Dueling, which is a longer class so everyone gets to participate fairly often. It goes for three and a half hours. Again, all this is made up according to what I think could be possible. One inspiration for the not-every-class-every-day is Oobleck's assignment for Jaune and Cardin in Jaunedice. It's possible that it was assigned for the next day, but there seemed to be more of a groan-type reaction (I don't want to) than a panic reaction (Oh no, too much too quickly).

(8) Light blue: More or less canon. Was an answer to a question in a trivia session at a Rooster Teeth event. The others are just what I think is right.

(9) Crap. I need more upper-classmen, which means OCs. Well, I'll get on it... Done. Rolled random numbers on my list of names for RPGs and whatnot until I got names I've actually used and would fit in this universe (not a giant or a fully trained soldier or a cyborg or undead or whatever). Then I rolled new names to replace random ones until I actually got to something usable as a team name. … What the heck? While going through character details to describe people better, I found that Yatsuhashi is SEVEN feet tall (according to the wiki, which got that from Monty's notes)... That's absurd. Stupid height = power trope... (Ozpin and Glynda are 6'6" and 6'5" respectively, and they're in charge of the Academy. See a pattern?)

(10) We mostly see students (well, RWBY and JNPR since "extras" don't get wardrobes) in their regular clothes only after school hours. Although there are several inconsistencies in canon, I'd like to have the uniforms required during class for this story. They can wear whatever they want outside of class times.

(11) no last name: In my RPG world, he's one of the original people, and they didn't feel the need for last names back then. However, his name is also used as a last name for his descendants. But basically... any incarnation of Gyudel ends up without a last name. He's honorable and all that boring stuff. I'll have to kick up the descriptions a few notches for GAZE since there aren't any references for youse to look at. Oh, they're not originally a team, but I put them together to fill the gap in this fic – all of them except one set of two weren't even alive at the same time in their original universe (and it's not the "pair" you'll see [ _EDIT: There are now two pairs_ ]). I'd also like to emphasize that these will _not_ be main characters. I'll probably use them again, but not as much as our "real" characters.

(12) Quick recap on the team for future reference, with appropriate (inappropriate?) non-Weiss stereotypes. (P.S., all weapons are my original decisions for their weapons, not modified in any way to fit Remnant, so any similarity to any RWBY characters is coincidental since I did this stuff before I found RWBY.) Gyudel is the honorable but physically unassuming guy who has a shield and a mental assault Semblance. Alevyí is a sophisticated girl, but has pink hair. She has a bow and a sword/dagger combination. Zelvendis is the flat-chested chick with extremely long black hair and an overly-bendy rapier that she never stabs with. Exzys is the psycho hooker pipsqueak with both a big axe and a big hammer who literally bends rock to her will.

(13) Velvet is CFVY's mage, according to wiki's comments about Monty's notes. She may have an actual weapon instead of just Dust, but I'll avoid any speculation until it's revealed in canon or I have a really good reason to invent something.

(14) (a) First blurb: Unless it's proven otherwise, I'll pretend Aura prevents and repairs damage but doesn't prevent pain or the actual impact, except during willing focusing of Aura, like when Ren blocked the Taijitu's teeth.  
(b) Second, longer blurb: Honestly did not plan out the outcome of the fight ahead of time. I just went from point to point and ended up here. When I wrote that Velvet pinned Alevyí to the floor, I figured CFVY was going to win, but apparently it turned around rather easily. "Oh, but Xyzantylzethyrioses, your OCs are way overpowered!" So what? They made their share of mistakes, too, and their abilities are certainly reasonable for the universe. They don't even have guns on their weapons, and I'd venture to say that they're more set up for fighting people than for fighting Grimm, where CFVY excels. And CFVY isn't perfect. Coco's weapon is certainly not suited for arena combat, and Velvet also has very little defense, leaving Yatsuhashi as their primary support. Fox is more one-on-one focused in my opinion with his extremely close ranged weapons. I wrote, and this is what happened. If you want nitpick at the details of the fight, go ahead, and I quite possibly _will_ change some details, even the final outcome, if you have solid enough evaluations. It's not a key plot scene; it's just for some exposition. Still have problems? Consult my manager. "You don't have a manager!" You're right. I'm my manager. I'm fine with you saying stuff to my face (er... screen).

(15) Obviously, this is my way of saying that I'm not creative enough to create so many OCs, I don't think it would be interesting, and no canon characters were involved thus far.

(16) Time for random number generator with eight options... RWBYJNPR – RNG is da best when it's actually supposed to be random or it's not a key plot battle. No thought necessary. 3: B. Waow, for the second roll I got non-RWBYJNPR, then ended up with Russel as well. We all love beating on the poor idiot... And just to let you know, I also rolled whether another RWBYJNPR would fight in the next match or later, and rolled whether and how many more RWBY members would fight for the day, with lower probabilities for higher numbers of them.

(17) Yes, I did randomly roll which of RWY would fight and whether they'd fight within RWBYJNPR or someone else, and that's what I got. Sometimes RNG is to be hated and sometimes it is to be adored for its simplicity. Hopefully I'll deliver.

(18) For a touch of realism, I mentally repeated the thoughts so they would be timed to the numbers.

(19) the weapon: I originally had "she" here, since Weiss considers Myrtenaster to be a girl in my story, but after rereading the sentence a few times I confirmed my hunch that the pronoun was way too ambiguous.

(20) (a) I RNG'd the end result (so as to not be blamed by avid Yang or Weiss fans), with a disproportionately low probability of a tie, and got it. Complain to the universe, not to me.  
(b) Aura Dissipation effect: I invented it, and there wasn't a good opportunity to explain it in the dialogue. Everyone with an unlocked Aura would be taught about it early on. What is it? It seems rather important for duels to not actually kill people, so I decided that when someone's Aura is completely depleted, the last impact causes somewhat of an explosion that halts the "overkill" of the strike as the Aura energy finishes leaving the person's body. Otherwise, Yang would have a rapier stuck all the way through her and Weiss would be disowned and criminally persecuted for murder. That's not exactly the point of the story.

(21) There was a slightly less enthusiastic elbow this time: Call it whatever you want, but people are allowed to acknowledge others' positive attributes. At this point, Blake doesn't particularly like Weiss. If you find that to be a spoiler, you have been using quite the rose-tinted lenses thus far.

(22) Not sure if I've said it yet or if you've figured it out, but when I have a string of short responses, it's in team name order. RWBY, JNPR, CFVY, etc.

(23) "It's one o' clock. Class just finished": Yes, it is a 3.5 hour class. I don't think they'd get enough required practice otherwise. I will have it be split into individual years outside of the first session (this chapter), but there are still plenty of random NPCs to get through.

(24) From me to me: "Crap. I started a reference about unedibly big animals. How to complete? In-universe...?" "No, Zeth, Grimm are not food." "So what do you suggest for an absurdly large edible creature?" "Um... Dinosaurs!" "That's stupid; dinosaurs probably never existed on Remnant." "But she already called her teammates 'indecent velociraptors'. Why not just make it a Weiss thing to refer to fabled creatures?" "Bah, fine; you... I... win this one. Which one?" "Hm... Something big, too big for a meal for several people, but not _too_ too big. Something well-known. Y'know what? Stegosaurus. That one is fresh on my mind since the Transport professor referred to them with regard to heat flow." "It has been decided."

VnLSK%Arj43kfdsalkJ43$#%fnds. I watched some RWBY-focused Rooster Teeth podcasts, and apparently some of the voice actors ship Bumblebee. I don't understand. They say there's some level of "opposites attract" and some "chemistry". I see none of it. Yang isn't a dick to Blake since Blake doesn't react to that, so she expresses her friendship by actually being friendly. Blake doesn't see anything to hate, and is fine with it. But Blake doesn't have anything against Ruby, either. Back to the topic of opposites, if anything, Yang and Weiss are more of opposites. Rather than just quiet vs loud, they're warm/friendly/joking vs cold/haughty/isolated/serious. However, Weiss and Blake are _ideological_ opposites – at first – which is my primary reasoning for Checkmate. It's umpteen bajillion times more meaningful than a slight personality difference. The ship can be focused on non-fluff plot and overcoming differences. Other ships are basically randomly deciding that someone wants to date a teammate who's been "just a friend" for several months, and then they just get along perfectly fine with a nice sappy relationship. Ups and downs, sure, but _all_ the ship plot is then completely detached from real story plot other than commenting on small bouts of teamwork.

YB ignores Blake's depth. She chose to leave the White Fang with a lifelong goal of upholding justice, and told Oobleck that she basically wanted to save the world. Yang's motive is having fun. Period. She can be helpful and caring, but doesn't look for any sort of meaning. Blake avoids finding fun on her own, only participating when her friends will it, and instead chooses her own actions based on duty toward justice. If she's anything like me, even her leisure, reading, isn't just for entertainment; stories literally always have moral topics in them. When I read, I empathize with characters for evils received and judge them on a moral scale. My interpretation of Ninjas of Love and my Sun interactions will elaborate on the reading topic and Blake's personal desire for depth, respectively. On the Weiss side of things, in order for her to really accept Blake's heritage and for her to denounce her father's evils, she should give a real apology rather than ignoring the issue. The best way for her to apologize in a way that shows she truly does care is to actively oppose racism, and this would involve Blake. A meaningful friendship based on this interaction _could_ turn romantic just as easily as any whimsical attraction ship, but it has a lot more backing it. I sure hope Monty wasn't actually planning on introducing racism as just a small, unimportant hurdle to learning backstories; they need to seriously attack racism, or it'll be a horrible moral/social/political plot hole. Unfortunately, I don't know if RT is _that_ sensitive to the viewers.

 **Chapter Synopsis:** Morning. Nora telling Grimm stories leads into conversation about parents. There were four classes yesterday, and only one today: Dueling I. It's my name for the one run by Goodwitch in the show. First is a demonstration match between two upper-classmen teams, and then the first-years get one-on-one fights for public shaming rights. Blake, Yang, and Weiss end up participating. No spoilers. They're fairly productive for the rest of the day. Bleh.

 **Changes Synopsis:** This is completely added. None of it is canon. Some dialogue tells stories that can be inferred from canon, however.

 **Next update:** Lol... I still have this section... Probably within a week, though. It's looking like I'm going to get ahead of canon eventually (definitely before the season ends in January unless I significantly decrease my writing), so I might need to rewrite things as Season/Volume 3 progresses. Result: 10 days. Took a couple days off, but had a lot more real-life than usual as well.


	4. Plz No Friday

Chapter 4 – Lol Don't Name It Something to Do With Friday (Plz No Friday)

 **Author's Note:**

Useless statistics: Chapter finished November 1, 2015. Published November 2, 2015. Total word count: 12191. Body word count: 11179 (92%). Writing Time: 16h29m. Chapter Rating: T+ for emotional violence and weird medical people.

Sweet, sweet, really horribly bad facepalm-worthy irony. Yes, this is just going to be their first Friday. Please feel free to donate your flaming messages for the horrible naming. I wish that I could intersperse some plot between heaps of random details, but I can't do much plot-related yet. Sorry, but I have to save it. That's the plan. I guess the middle section of the chapter is _a_ plot, but not at all one of the main plots.

I had three days eaten by family stuff, and I spent three more reading and such, then there was a heck of a lot of academic stuff, so this was a bit longer break than others. Whatever; it's what you get.

* * *

"Good morning, Weiss," Ruby chirped. "Remember, today class starts at nine again!"

"Four more minutes...?" the heiress groaned.

"Nope! If you wait four more minutes, you'll be late for class!"

"You said that yesterday. Ca-*yawn*-an't trick me again." _Wait... Am I seriously not raging at everything near me? But I hate being woken up, and I hate these people! An heiress needs her beauty sleep, no ifs, ands, or buts._

"Okay, I give up," the leader conceded. "... I hope you wake up on your own before you have to go to class!" she taunted.

"I can wake up on my own," Weiss harrumphed. She checked that Mr. Fluffschnee was safely under her pillow, then crawled out of bed. "See? I'm up."

"Silly Weiss; that wasn't on your own. You were already awake because of me! Try harder next time!"

The heiress gave her leader a withering glare... or, what she hoped was one. But Ruby just looked perplexed, so Weiss figured she still needed some more time to function properly. Being incapable of intimidating small children just would not do. "Okay, fine. I'll go shower. Go have breakfast or something." She shooed the red-themed girl away.

The heiress was pleasantly surprised to see that her roommates had continued the trend of swapping out their shower products, but when she turned the water on she realized something: Shower racks were invented for a reason. She'd need to get one, since it had apparently evaded her thought before coming to school, and she was sure nobody else would have the faintest desire to improve their quality of life. _I wonder if they'll even help clean._ I _don't really know much about that because that was the servants' job, but I'll probably be stuck with it now._ She brought a water-logged palm to her face in despair. _And laundry... I doubt Ruby will ever change her sheets because of that terrible contraption attached to her bed. How repulsive!_ After that pleasant line of thought, Weiss managed to steer her mind away from sanitizing her fairly new abode and toward sanitizing her person.

Miss Schnee didn't know much about world records, but she thought that she may be able to earn one for "cleanest person to ever set foot out of a shower" after her irritation-fueled vigorous scrubbing. "Well, now for breakfast," she said to herself as she set down her SDC-logo hair dryer and secured her hair in a trademark side-ponytail. The white-haired girl remembered to grab her scroll, then headed off to the dining hall.

* * *

"Good morning, Weiss," Blake called from the bench table occupied by most of teams RWBY and JNPR. Shortly after, the rest of her companions turned and waved.

 _Does Blake have eyes in the back of her head? She's sitting facing the opposite direction! Maybe she's just a ninja. ...That's actually fairly plausible._ She shook her head. _Whatever. Food._

Just as she had surmised the previous day, this morning held the entire variety of usual options. She grabbed waffles and blueberries this time, but still took yogurt and milk like before.

The conversation had reached a natural lull as the heiress arrived at the table, so she decided to introduce a very important topic. "Ruby, Blake, Yang, you do know that I will not tolerate living in a pig sty, correct?" Hopefully that tone of voice wasn't too accusatory.

"What's this all about, Weiss?" Ruby countered with narrowed eyes. "I'm not throwing things around the room or anything."

"Right, but dust and all sorts of grime build up over time," Weiss lectured. "We have to clean sometime, and I refuse to do it all myself. All I'm asking for is your occasional help."

Nora interjected a dismayed, "Aw... Cleaning is no fun. Messes are way better..."

But luckily, the RWBY members seemed to be a bit understanding. "Okay!" "Of course." "Sure, Weissy."

The team leader pounded a fist on the table. "I officially declare that Team RWBY's first rule is that we will clean!"

"I thought," pointed out Blake, raising an index finger, "that Rule Number One of Team RWBY was that we had to be friends."

"Oh, yeah! Of course! Umm... Rule Number Ten of Team RWBY is that we have to clean!"

"Why are we skipping two through nine, Rubes?" the older sister asked.

"Umm... There are probably a bunch of rules that already exist that we just haven't said yet! I'm saving room!"

Weiss thought her leader was crazy. "Well why wouldn't cleaning be rule number two, and then we can add those forgotten ones as you think of them?"

Ruby stood on her bench seat and raised a triumphant fist. "Because Rule Number Two is that I can put the rules in whatever order I want! No resisting! Okay, so Rule One is we have to be friends! Rule Two is I put the rules in the order I want! Rule Ten is we clean... stuff...! Stuff!"

At least that was progress, as nonsensical as the decisions were. But... "Isn't that a little vague, Ruby? We need a schedule," the heiress insisted. "How about every Friday directly after classes finish everyone cleans the room?"

Jaune groaned from the opposite side of the table, "Jeez, that's a lot of cleaning..."

Ruby nodded in agreement. "That's way too much! We'll never have any time for team stuff!"

"How about once a month?" Yang suggested. Weiss wrinkled her nose, so the blonde waved her hands in front of her and shook her head, switching her idea to, "Okay, maybe every other week. That sound good?"

Weiss sighed but nodded, and Blake shrugged. Ruby, still standing on the bench, announced, "Okay! It's yumanumilus(1)! Rule Ten is that we will clean our room every other Saturday!"

"I said Friday," Weiss objected.

"Nope! Saturday! Fridays are much too valuable! Yang taught me that important lesson long, long ago!"

"Fine."

"Uh, Nora, Ren, and Pyrrha," Jaune started. "Y'know, maybe we ought to have some rules like that, too. It could be useful."

"I think we should have the same cleaning times as them," Pyrrha suggested, gesturing toward Team RWBY. "That way, we won't distract one another from that duty if any of us want to get together for studying. And we would be able to remind one another so it would be much more difficult to forget."

"Okay!" Jaune announced, standing on his bench. But he wasn't very stable and had to step back onto the floor. He rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. "Okay, so the joint JNPR and RWBY cleaning day will be every other Saturday!" The enthusiasm was much weaker than Ruby's, but he was successful in getting the point across.

"Now that that's settled, maybe we should eat," the black-haired acquaintance noted. "We have half an hour until class."

Everyone jumped in their seats a bit and unceremoniously shoveled sustenance down their throats. Except Weiss. She ate properly, of course. _Neanderthals._

* * *

"My lovely students," Professor Port said, "today, your _fine_ instructor will be telling you _all_ about the most common form of Grimm: The beowolf."

Weiss's notebook was open and her pencil's tip quivered just above the paper, ready to jot down any noteworthy words as soon as possible. The rest of her team also seemed to be paying some attention.

"Now, as you all know, beowolves resemble the common _canis lupus_ , the wolf. As the resemblance would suggest, this form of Grimm is a carnivorous quadruped, although Grimm do not actually eat in order to survive. Beowolves are also capable of standing on their hind limbs for short periods of time in order to swipe with their forepaws. But to continue the analogy, beowolves are indeed pack hunters like regular wolves, rarely prowling alone. They have excellent primary senses, although Grimm also share a _sixth_ sense: They can smell negative emotions. Yes, fear, despair, anger, jealousy, and hatred all attract our foes, which is why emotional control is a vital aspect of your career as a hunter... _or huntress_. *Click-click, eyebrow wiggle.*"

Weiss rolled her eyes and allowed her nearly-smoking pencil to clatter to the desk. _Oh, come on. You're probably sixty; give it up, old man. You're not going to net a relationship with a teenager or young adult. I may like your information, but you are seriously messed up._

She was forced to pick up the writing implement as the teacher continued. "Beowolves are not as heavily armored as many other forms of Grimm, such as the boarbatusk, but they are armored, nevertheless. Most have several spikes on their rear knees, on the outsides of their front arms, and on the backs of their necks, and as such, these are not excellent targets. The skull is also heavily reinforced. However, these foul beasts _are_ vulnerable on the fronts of their necks, on most of their rear limbs, and all over the cores of their bodies. The primary danger in going after these targets is a counterattack. Many weapons do not have a sufficiently long reach to cleave a beowolf while keeping its owner out of reach of the beast's claws. Hunter organizations recommend waiting for this type of beast to attack first, then parry and counterattack. But if your weapon has a long reach, by all means, take them out without taking the risk."

"Um, I have a question," said Jaune, raising his hand.

"Good, good. What is your question, Sir Arc?" the plump red man responded. Weiss gritted her teeth – the _boy_ didn't deserve such a title.

"Well, it doesn't really apply to me because I just have a sword and it's not really all that impressive..." the blonde rambled.

"Carry on, my wayward son," requested the professor. "Just ask your question."

"O-oh, right. Why not just shoot it before it gets to us?"

"My dear boy, you seem to be rather short-sighted. There is not always the option. Of course anyone with a gun can simply pick off Grimm from a safe distance, but issues arise when there are too many all at once, giving them time to close in, or they set up an ambush. Why in fact, one time as a _dashing young huntsman_ , who turned the heads of _all_ the _huntresses_ around him, I was out on patrol and was ambushed by a group of twenty of the beasts, although at first there were only six. This _fearless_ young, _handsome_ man was undeterred by the sudden appearance of the foul beasts. I hefted my weapon and hewed three in twain with a single slash. The rest backed away a wee bit, and I stared the leader directly in the eyes. It was so scared that its knees knocked and its eyes watered( 2). Ha-ha! I confidently strolled up to it and we shook hands like true gentlemen, announcing our consent to conduct a proper, clean fight. But a gentleman it was not; I was a young fool. A very _smart_ fool, but a fool nonetheless. My foe pulled a cheap stunt, clawing at me with its second forepaw as soon as we began the handshake, chipping – very slightly, of course – at my magnificent, powerful Aura. But I had some tricks up my wide, ornate sleeves as well. I grasped the creature with both hands, one on its throat and one at its waist, and pulled the unworthy adversary apart with nothing but my sheer might. With the disappointingly quick duel complete, the other fourteen popped out of the shadows, eager to meet their demise just as their fallen alpha had seconds before. Although I was _momentarily_ surprised at the appearance of so many more Grimm, there was not a milligram of fear within me. They all went to the grave in the most appropriate way imaginable; that is, by the _cold_ bite of my _glorious_ steel. 'Twas a simple task; in fact, I received not a single additional scratch during that battle.

"I returned to town with a brilliant smile and an air of superiority. Ah! In fact, I had broken the record for most beowolves slain in a single encounter for the decade(3)! After a prudent young woman _carefully_ bandaged my _single_ wound, the neighborhood carried me in their arms to the pub to celebrate. Why, there was such a commotion that nobody within a mile got a wink of sleep that night. _Everyone_ came to applaud my heroism. I even managed to arrange a whole thirty-eight dates in those few hours! Ladies, I _highly_ recommend considering the _impressive_ feats of _yours truly_ the next time you are looking for _quality_ company of the male variety.

"Moving on, there was another time when..."

Weiss stopped listening. The professor's first story on the first day was very interesting and even taught a few lessons, but it was clear that this story had very little basis in truth. All the first story today taught was that A.) This man had a crazy imagination and loved to lie; and B.) She was not in the least interested in such a pervert.

Apparently, the rest of her team had similar ideas, as glances were shared among them. Weiss pulled out her textbook, and the rest of the team scooted their chairs closer to see. The heiress flipped to the chapter about beowolves and the four read for the remainder of the lecture. The professor was so engrossed in his next story that he didn't even notice.

"Awwww, that's the bell. We didn't quite get to cover everything today, so prepare for part two, including the live demo, next week(4)! Class dismissed!"

* * *

"Ha... ooooooooh..." drooled Ruby, who had an entire tray full of strawberries spread on a base layer of cookies. "Ooh so good so _good!_ Get in my belly, little red ones!"

This odd distraction took Weiss's mind even further from World History, which she had mostly ignored. Something about angry animals and angry humans and a push for war. It wouldn't be important. The heiress leaned to her right to ask Yang, "Why is she talking to her food like it's a friend or a small child?"

"Oh, that?" Yang said. "That's completely normal Ruby behavior. Strawberries and cookies are her favorites. Don't expect her to do anything else until she's done eating."

"That's... awfully immature," Weiss added in her disappointed complaining voice rather than her scolding complaining voice. She decided to just drop the issue like Yang suggested, and instead picked up a spoon and dug into her chowder.

Most of the meal was carried out in the absence of conversation. They were, after all, still mostly strangers, and school topics hadn't really gotten anywhere yet. As Weiss set her spoon down in her finished bowl, plenty of other students were also finishing their meals and taking their trays to the dish return. One such student caught Weiss's attention: Velvet. Cardin Winchester was pulling on her ears to screams of, "Ow! That hurts! Please, stop?"

Now that was interesting. The little animal girl was finally getting what she deserved. Weiss laughed quietly behind a raised hand.

"I told you they were real," laughed Cardin.

"What a freak," added Russel. The heiress agreed, and continued her giggling.

The rest of RWBY and JNPR must have seen the scene as well, but nobody was laughing. Why not? They actually looked rather... annoyed. "Atrocious," spat Pyrrha. "I can't stand people like him."

Uh... what? The heiress abruptly cut off her laughter. It wouldn't do to get on her most promising ally's bad side. As she looked up, she saw her black-haired teammate glancing at her from the corner of her eye. "He's not the only one," she said.

"It must be hard to be a faunus," mused Yang.

 _Well... sh**. Everyone else likes the_ beasts _for some inexplicable reason. What is good about such vile, lowly creatures? But, maybe it would be best for the team if I just played along... A Schnee is likable, not hated._ The heiress abruptly rose, taking her tray away as well. "Our individual classes start soon, so we'd better get going," she announced, hopefully wiping the previous topic out of everyone's minds. Whether it worked or not, the girl left too quickly for the rest of them to react, picking up her notebooks from Room 413 and her weapon from the locker room. _To Swordplay class._

* * *

Weiss stood across from Cardin Winchester with Myrtenaster drawn. Oh, she was going to enjoy this. ...How did she get into this in the first place? That's a funny question. You see...

 _On her way back from her Dust class, Weiss spotted Cardin and Jaune in the dorm hall. They were walking together and chatting, but Jaune looked rather nervous and the other boy looked somewhat smug. They arrived at a stairwell before the elevator arrived at Weiss's location, and as Jaune stepped through the door, Cardin pushed a button on Jaune's shield, causing it to expand and stop him in his tracks. He fell flat on his back... and saw Weiss in the distance._

" _Hey, Weiss! A little help, please?" begged the blonde buffoon._

 _The heiress sighed. Cardin had been a moron since she first met him. He was disruptive during the team declaration ceremony... He had broken_ her _ceiling... He bullied everyone around him... Actually, he mostly bullied wimps who deserved it, namely, the rabbit girl and the flirtatious loser who was now begging for her help. But still, there was no need to go around causing unneeded trouble. She made up her mind._

 _Weiss walked up to the two as the bully kicked his prey in the shins repeatedly. "Cardin Winchester, you have been nothing but a nuisance every second I've experienced your presence. Behave yourself or I'll make you."_

" _Ooh, princess wants to save her boyfriend?" taunted the brick-head._

" _No," Weiss retorted, with not a hint of redness in her face to imply that she was lying. "He can have an absolutely miserable life for all I care. This is for_ my _sanity; I will_ not _allow your" – she jabbed a finger in the predator's face – "antics to continue."_

" _Make me," Cardin jeered. "That's right; you can't. You're so weak that you need to defend yourself with your words instead of your actions."_

" _Hmph. Hardly. You're such a hypocrite_ (5) _. Your only option is to taunt me. You're nothing."_

" _Ha! Doubtful. Can you put your money where your mouth is?"_

" _Of course I can, but there's no way I'd waste a single Lien on a fool like you. Let's go to the practice arenas_ right this instant _, unless you're a_ coward _. And Jaune, this doesn't concern you. Scram." The heiress shooed the boy away, who had managed to collapse his shield and stand up by that time. She strutted toward the locker rooms to retrieve Myrtenaster._

And that's how Miss Schnee ended up standing across from one of the biggest bullies in the school with her weapon drawn. "You're going to learn more today than you have in all your previous schooling, if you even had any," she taunted.

"Bring it!" the _boy_ responded as he hefted his giant mace over his head and charged.

"Sloppy strike," she lectured as she easily sidestepped a hard downward strike. "You need to predict where your opponent is going." To emphasize her point, she slashed horizontally at her opponent, who hopped backward, but she anticipated the motion and shifted the halfhearted swipe into a thrust, easily making contact with the bully's breastplate.

"You're gonna pay for that paint scratch!" He lunged in again, this time sweeping horizontally with his weapon so Weiss couldn't step to the side.

She didn't need to. "Hm. Predictable." The heiress jumped up onto a glyph as the strike passed under her. Then she frontflipped off of it, allowing her body's torque to power a vertical slash at the back of her opponent's head.

Cardin stumbled forward and turned around, but not before Weiss landed another slash, this time on one of his sides. A quick glance at the display screen at the side of the room revealed that his Aura was currently in the low green.

The Winchester boy gritted his teeth and stepped in for another downward smash. Weiss stepped to the side and parried the weapon, scooping the mace's head forward by tugging under its head with her blade. Cardin fell off balance, giving Weiss the opportunity to clothesline him on Myrtenaster's edge. To preserve his neck, he rotated backward and fell on his posterior. The heiress followed up with another slash at his neck, and now his Aura was well into the yellow, nearly thirty percent.

Some opponents would have backflipped off of the floor to get out of this situation, but Cardin was not nearly nimble enough. The dead-weight did what he did best: groveling in the dirt. However, he wasn't totally helpless. Weiss's next slash was deflected with a hefty swipe from Cardin's mace, sending _her_ stumbling away about a meter. The bully had enough space to slowly rise to his feet.

"Oh-ho. You're in for it now..."

The white-haired girl rolled her eyes. _Sure_ she was "in for it". Because his other attacks were _so_ successful...

Cardin rushed toward her with his mace held low – probably in preparation for an upward swing. That wasn't a terribly powerful strike since it had to work against gravity. Weiss faked a yawn and gestured in front of herself with Myrtenaster, forming a barrier glyph. The brute bounced off of it and stumbled back, and this opportunity was not passed up: Weiss, with her eyes still closed from her fake yawn, lunged forward with Myrtenaster, impaling the bully on her weapon. Or, he would have been impaled, if his Aura wasn't completely depleted with that strike. The heiress kept her arm relaxed in anticipation of this result and easily stopped her weapon from flinging itself out of her grasp.

"Tell me again the next time you want a good lesson," Weiss lazily announced as she leaned Myrtenaster against her shoulder and walked away.

She heard some shuffling behind her, but assumed it was nothing. That was a mistake. Her spine was met with a _very_ hard whack from Cardin's mace, knocking her to the ground and lowering her Aura to seventy percent, and she couldn't help the scream of pain. "Don't you know when to stop?" she shouted, rolling out of the way of a smash aimed at her chest. "I won; you lost! You don't even have Aura left!" He smashed the floor where she had been half a second earlier. Apparently, there wasn't a single gram of logic in him.

The next time Cardin's weapon came down, Weiss blocked it with a glyph. Only _most_ of the energy was taken out of the strike, however, and the mace continued through the splintered barrier to lodge itself in the girl's gut.

"What's wrong, little princess? Too much pain to take?" the bully jeered as he twisted the head of his weapon in her gut, causing Weiss to shriek in pain(6). "I'll tell you what: We'll make a deal: You stay out of my business for the rest of your miserable life, and I allow you to continue that life for a while longer."

"N-nev-AUGH!-never!"

The brunette continued his deadly massage, undeterred. Now _he_ decided that he may as well yawn as if he was bored with the situation.

The heiress feebly reached out for her weapon, which had come out of her grasp when her tormentor landed his . His eyes were closed... He wouldn't see... Just a couple more inches...

Yes! Weiss's fingers closed around Myrtenaster's hilt. Her body obeyed her attempt to lift it when Cardin was between the two extremes of his weapon's rotation, and she desperately slashed across the enemy's unarmored stomach. The relief was instant: Cardin's eyes widened. He swore and stepped back, grasping at his now-severed skin, and his weapon was pulled along with him. The heiress took a raspy breath in, then stood as quickly as possible. She lunged in and whacked Cardin in the right temple with Myrtenaster's pommel, knocking him unconscious.

The heiress stumbled to a wall and slumped down against it. "S**t. Now what?"

The practice arenas were open daily from seven in the morning until midnight, but there were no designated supervisors; nobody to see what happened; nobody to help Weiss back to her room or get Cardin medical attention. Weiss unbuttoned her uniform jacket and lifted the shirt underneath, finding that yes, her previously _immaculate_ skin was now covered in all different colors of bruises, even through her Aura, which the wall display said was still at thirty-five percent. Walking hurt; if it didn't, she wouldn't have slumped against the wall in the first place.

 _Who can help, who can help? ...The only option is my fr... teammates._ Weiss opened her Scroll – it informed her that the time was 3:35 pm – went to the contacts tab, and dialed the first number she came across. _I suppose it's useful that they pre-programmed our team's numbers into our Scrolls. I certainly wouldn't have gone to the trouble otherwise._

" _Weiss?"_ came a voice.

The heiress grimaced and attempted to put a bit of cheerfulness into her voice so it wouldn't be so obvious. "Ruby, could you get Yang and Blake and come to the practice arenas?"

" _...This is Blake."_

"Right, alphabetic order." _I was hoping for Ruby... And yeah, that didn't even sound like Ruby in the first place._ "Um, yeah, I need you three over here."

" _What's the big deal?"_

"It's, uh, it's a surprise! Just... hurry." Weiss turned away from her scroll and coughed a couple of times.

" _Ruby and Yang, Weiss wants us over at the practice arenas,"_ Weiss made out from the other end of the line. Then the voice got closer again. _"*Sigh.* Weiss, this better be good. We're on our way. Which room?"_

"Um..." She looked at the door, finding a plaque next to it that labeled the room as 'ARENA 4'. "Met me in arena four." The heiress hung up.

It would probably be seven minutes or so, since the training arena building was along the south end of campus while the dorms were at the north. Just a while longer...

The white-haired girl's scroll buzzed – it was an incoming call.

" _Hi, Weiss! I love surprises! Ooh, can you give me a hint?"_ Ruby rambled.

"No. Just... use your legs, not your mouth. Bye."

Just before she hit the the 'end call' button, she heard a different voice yell, "That's what he said!"(8)

Facepalm.

The heiress focused on her breathing for a while. It felt like way too long, but she finally heard the front door of the building squeak open – they should probably oil the hinges – and feet patter toward her. Then she saw bodies on the other side of the window next to the door to her arena, and the door swung open. And eager Ruby was the first inside the room, glancing around hastily, but the girl's face quickly lost its enthusiasm.

"Weiiiiiss! What happened?" she shouted as she zipped across the room with her Semblance. Blake and Yang made their way into the room as well.

"Cardin... was picking fights with everyone. Well, people weaker than him. I couldn't stand it, so I picked a fight *cough* with him. It *cough* was really easy, but he *cough* he backstabbed me when I was leaving. He had me down but... *cough* I escaped and knocked him out. He wouldn't stop *cough*. The idiot needs to learn his place."

Her ...friends. Her friends gave her sympathetic looks. "So," Yang spoke, "what about him?" She pointed toward the unconscious Cardin.

Ruby's face twisted into a mischievous grin. "Let's draw on his face and leave him to rot! Ooh, that sounds like a Nora idea; I'm learning fast."

"I don't think it would work out well if we left him," Blake said. "He'll just wake up and go complain to the teachers."

"Yeah, that's true," Yang said. "I guess we could go find Goodwitch."

Ruby was looking pityingly at Weiss, but she noticed the three sets of eyes on her and looked around. "Me? Ugh. Sometimes it sucks being fast." _Zip_.

"Oookay, Weissy!" Yang sang. "Up you go!" She yanked Weiss to her feet by her arms and hefted the girl onto her back, causing Weiss to let out an _Eep!_ of both surprise and pain.

"Put me down! I'm bruised all over!"

"Heh heh heh. Sorry."

The pain was relieved, but Weiss wobbled a bit on her feet. She grabbed onto her friends' shoulders and they began walking out of the room. But... it wasn't nearly as easy as the heiress thought. "Darn it, can't you two be a little shorter? This is stretching out my shoulders and my stomach."

The two readjusted, bending their knees, but that only lasted a short while as well. "Weiss, this isn't really working," Yang said. "I know! Hang onto our arms." The blonde immediately grabbed Weiss's hand with her own, causing the heiress to squirm and try to pull away, but the former gripped harder and hooked her forearm under Weiss's elbow. It actually was rather helpful. The only strain was upward on Weiss's shoulders now, since her arms weren't pulled above her shoulders to stretch out her abdomen. Blake tentatively latched on as well, and the three hobbled out of the building.

"Oh," said Weiss. "Where are we going?"

"Um, there's a hospital on campus, isn't there?" Yang said hopefully.

"Hopefully." "I think so."

"Heh, just pulling your leg. I know where it is since I plan on sending plenty of other students there and I wanted to know where to send them their nice reassuring pity cards. It's in the administrative tower."

"How generous of you," Blake dryly commented.

...Silence.

…

"So, Weiss, isn't it cathartic to beat up thugs like that?" asked Yang.

"It- Well- Maybe a little. Until he went against the rules of a duel. _Scum._ "

"Well everything turned out alright, right?" Yang said, attempting to cheer up the heiress. "You've got your Aura to heal you; you won't even miss out on anything!"

"What a wonderful first week..." Weiss mumbled.

Soon, they were met with Ruby running toward them from the opposite direction with a flustered Professor Goodwitch in tow barely keeping up. _She always seems mad about something._ "Hey guys! Are you doing okay, Weiss?" shouted Ruby.

"Just peachy!" Yang yelled back, answering for the heiress.

Once the groups were withing talking distance, Goodwitch addressed them. "Miss Schnee, from what Ruby has told me, you should be able to just rest it off in your room, but do check in with a nurse first. I'm going to retrieve... the other." The assistant headmaster continued onward, and Ruby ran circles around her team.

"To the hospital!" Ruby commanded. "Oh, by the way, I thunk up Team RWBY's Rule Number Three. It's 'always duel with supervision'!"

Weiss sighed. "Yes, Ruby. I didn't think it would be necessary..."

"Fine with me," said Yang.

Blake nodded.

* * *

The cheerful, chubby lady wearing hospital scrubs had a name tag labeled "Dr. Tangerina". Weiss smiled weakly up at the overly happy woman.

"Come with me!" the lady shrieked. Great; she had _that_ kind of voice.

She led Team RWBY to a small examination room and gestured for Weiss to sit down. Yang and Blake released her, and she slumped into position on the specially designed chair.

"Now shoo!" Tangerina screamed. "Patient privacy policies and all that jazz." Her teammates slunk out of the room, probably to sit in some chairs in a waiting area. "Okay, little miss, what's your problem?"

"What's _your_ problem?" the heiress retorted. Didn't the stupid nurse know who she was? She should show a bit of respect!

"Don't make this any harder than it needs to be, little lady," said the fat nurse or doctor or whatever she was.

Weiss cracked a grin. "Okay, _big lady_ , I'll make this nice and easy for you. An idiot hit me in the back with his mace when our duel was already over and then he twisted the weapon into my gut. I don't exactly feel the best right now."

"Strip!"

" _Excuse_ me!?"

"Just your shirt is fine. I need to examine the wounds."

Weiss rolled her eyes and did as told. ...The stupid uniform had way too many layers, though, and the idiot nurse's staring sure didn't make her very comfortable.

"Oh, wow, you have really small boobies," said the nurse. "You're a bit on the thin side, too. Maybe you ought to go to the cafeteria a bit more often. It makes you really happy when you're nice and plump; I know from experience!"

"Don't you have a _job_ to do?!" the heiress scolded, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Oh, indeed!" Tangerina responded. "Oh, well, there aren't any obvious ruptures, but you mentioned being hit in the back, so we'll need to do an x-ray and an MRI. Not! My Semblance is seeing inside of things. Isn't that cool? Aren't you impressed? It's a rather handy thing to have in this field; I can see all kinds of things."

Weiss facepalmed. She uneasily wondered what the nurse was looking at right now... "So why did you make me take my clothes off?"

"Oh, that. It helps a little; it's harder to look through clothes as well, although not impossible. Well, your bones are fine. Your organs are okay, too, although the intestine has a tiny little rupture and there's a bit of internal bleeding. You can just go home and rest up; your Aura will take care of you just fine."

Weiss slipped her not-so-protective layers back on and went to stand up. She pushed against her seat, but promptly stopped – the motion was working her abdominal muscles too much. The doctor reached in to help, but Weiss put a halt to that as quickly as possible. "Hands off!"

The white-haired girl settled for rocking back and forth to slowly walk her body toward the edge of the seat, and finally slipped off into a standing position. The girl had to reach out to the chair to keep her balance, however. She leaned a hand against the wall and slowly shuffled out of the room.

"Good luck growing your assets! Goodbye!" Tangerina shrieked after her.

Facepalm.

"Hey, guys," Weiss heard Ruby say from down the hall, "I heard a door and some voices, so maybe someone's done with their appointment! It's probably Weiss!" Sure enough, the pseudo-redhead zipped around the corner and immediately hugged Weiss.

"Ow! Get off! Don't hug me! I am _not_ huggable( 9)!"

"Ehehe... Sorry; forgot about your stomach. Need some help?"

Weiss sighed and leaned against Ruby's arm as the two hobbled toward the rest of the team. Yang rounded the corner and latched on as well.

"What's the time?" Weiss asked.

"There are clocks in hospitals, right?" Yang returned.

 _Well... Yes, I suppose there are, but no way am I admitting it._ There was a clock in plain sight on one of the walls, and the device was kind enough to inform Weiss that it was currently 4:17. She blinked a few times, but it still said 4:17. _Oh, right, they use two sets of twelve hours in Vale. Atlas's twenty-four hour system is much less confusing._ (10)

"Good point, Weiss," Yang continued. "We have plenty of time to head into town, or go spar in one of the arenas, or I wouldn't mind killing some Grimm in the forest. Oh, that reminds me: Goodwitch will want me for ursa cleanup anyway. So... maybe we'll just stick around Beacon for now."

The four arrived on the ground level and headed out the door. They were approached by Goodwitch, who was levitating Cardin's unconscious form behind her. _Her Semblance is definitely telekinesis._

The professor looked rather grumpy about the situation she was cleaning up, but once she saw Team RWBY she put on a fake smile and spoke. "Good afternoon, girls. Miss Xiao Long, you are relieved of your detention duties; please help keep an eye on Miss Schnee. I will drop by later this evening for a full report of this... event."

Yang's free shoulder slumped down with a heavy sigh. "Yes, professor..." Goodwitch continued on her way. "Well, I guess I won't have my fun time tonight."

"I don't think we should go walking around Vale or even the campus," Ruby added.

"Ugh. I almost didn't think of that. Thanks a lot, Ruby."

"That's what adorable little sisters are for!"

* * *

"Oh, _Dust_ , watch your hands! That doesn't _feel_ the best, you know!"

"Stop complaining, Weiss. We have to get you onto your bed. Unless you meant you want to be touched where it _does_ feel the best." *Eyebrow wiggle.*

"Shut up and leave me alone, Yang!"

"I don't think so! Glynda said that _I_ have to watch you _very_ carefully for the rest of the day. So sit down and be eye candy; I'll go grab a chair quick."

Blake elbowed the blonde in the side. "Just... stop. Let's get her on the bed."

As the team rolled the heiress onto her mattress, Weiss grumbled, "At least it's close to floor level..." The hands released her, and... " _Oum_. It hurts so much now."

"That tends to happen when the adrenaline wears off and you start trying to relax," said Blake.

Ruby burst into the conversation: "Okay, let's derail this conversation! Now it's my turn to talk! Let's do!... stuff. Um, what do we even need to do?"

"We've finished the readings for Grimm Studies and World History," the black-haired girl noted.

"We probably shouldn't just leave Weiss alone..." Yang added.

"That _would_ be appreciated. I'd probably starve to death."

"Um... Team rules?" Ruby wondered. "Nah; we have enough of those for now. Wait! I could declare that Fridays are a day of fun and relaxation, to be filled with team games! Yang, you packed the Z-Station(11), right?"

"Yup!" her sister replied. "I think it's still in a box somewhere though."

The team, minus Weiss, scoured the room for any sign of boxes and gaming consoles.

"I found- nope, that's just an empty box," said Blake.

"Oh, _that's_ where my rock collection went!" Ruby announced.

 _What the heck?_ "Seriously, Ruby? Why would you bring _rocks_ to school? Why would you have a pile of rocks in the first place?" the heiress jeered from her spot on the bed. "Ow." _Lesson learned: Don't pick up your head and try to point at people with a stomach injury._

"Hey! A girl can have whichever hobbies she wants! And actually, this rock reminds me of mom..." Weiss didn't want to pick up her head to look at it, but a couple seconds later a white and red marbled rock was shoved into her face.

"Okay, okay. That's nice. Now get it out of my face."

"Found it!" Yang shouted, holding up a grey plastic box with a bunch of wires sticking out of it. "Oh, right. Dad sent a TV too. Once we find that, let's set this all up on my desk. We all know I'm not going to use it anyway."

Weiss's eyebrows furrowed. "I do not want a bunch of _failures_ on my team!"

"Relax, princess. I'm fine with doing homework, but I'll probably just use somebody else's desk. Actually... we can use the bookshelf under the window instead. That way it's in the middle of the room."

"Found it, sis!" The leader made some shuffling sounds, probably a result of reaching inside the box, followed by a dull thud as the object was likely unceremoniously dropped on the bookshelf. Clicks could be heard between series of sounds of plastic scraping on wood and plastic and whispers of, "This one here... That one there..."

"Okay, I think that's all the cords. Let's turn 'er on!" said Yang. After a short pause, the girl began chuckling.

"Oh..." said Ruby. "What's the Wi-Fi password? They set that up ahead of time for our Scrolls."

"Give me that," said Blake.

Ruby read off the characters: "B-three-A-C-O-N-umm the weird number symbol thingy. Really!? That's stupid. It's just like Beacon."

"Hey, I didn't invent it," the black-haired girl shrugged. "It works, see?"

"Gimme that!" Yang said. "Ugh. We have to go through all the settings and stuff. This might take a while."

"I'm going to read for a bit," Blake said.

The heiress heard the rapid clack of buttons, a person sliding onto the bed across the room, and footsteps coming toward her... "Don't you _dare_ jump on me, Ruby!"

"Why would I do that?" Ruby grumpily said as she sat down next to Weiss. "So, what kinds of games do you play, Weiss?"

"And what makes you think I would want to play a game?"

"You-"

"I don't have time for such frivolous things. There's always something more important to do."

"That's not true. We're all caught up on schoolwork and there's an entire weekend open. It'll be fun!"

"But that's such a childish activity!"

"Actually, there are a lot of games designed for teenagers and adults... And everyone has the right to be a kid whenever they want!"

Weiss sighed. "Okay, just once. Then I can prove how useless your idea was."

"Yay, Weiss!" The leader bounced to her feet and reached out, but, "-Oop, probably shouldn't hug you. Sorry. Oh, but you probably want to sit up so you can see."

The heiress rolled her eyes. "I've been staring at the very interesting underside of your bed for this entire conversation; of course it would be nice to sit up. Why did you three just throw me onto the bed in a heap in the first place?"

"S-sorry!" Ruby squeaked. "Okay, I'll help you up."

"I don't need any help!" The somewhat injured girl braced her palms on the mattress and pushed a bit, but winced and had to give up. "Okay, fine," she grumbled.

Ruby placed one hand behind Weiss's shoulders and the other on her far elbow and lifted. The heiress was easily adjusted to a sitting position. Weiss tried to scoot back to rest against the headboard, but her muscles were not cooperating too well, so Ruby adjusted her grip, holding around Weiss's back and under her armpits with one hand and reaching for the legs with her other hand. "Hey! Watch your hands!"

"Sorry! But it's the only way."

"*Sigh.* Fine." After a few seconds of struggling, Weiss was now turned to lean against the footboard so she could see the rest of the room. As expected, Yang was currently pressing buttons that changed some words on the TV screen and Blake was reading on her own bed.

"Wow, you're really light, Weiss," Ruby commented. "Maybe you should actually eat something at meals."

"Oh, shut up! The stupid nurse tried to tell me to get fat, too. I'm just naturally small."

"Like me! Oh, I reminded myself... We should probably eat. It's just after five."

The Ice Queen glared at Ruby, who got the message. She wasn't moving.

"Right. Okay, guys, I'm going to see what they have for supper; I'll be right back!" _Zoom._

Weiss's other teammates were still in their own little worlds, and she was stranded here with... nothing. Actually, her feet were touching a lump. A very familiar lump. _Mr. Fluffschnee!_ The girl reached under the sheets and moved the small object next to her left side – that way, if Ruby tried to sit next to her again, she wouldn't end up on top of him. _Saved you! Sorry for making you suffocate, little guy_ (12) _._ She stroked his soft head a few times, but pulled her hand back out before anyone noticed... hopefully. A quick glance around the room reassured her.

 _So school is going surprisingly well and I've met a few people. Ruby is annoying, but I think she really does have good intentions. Her sister, though, is a little boisterous. I mean, she's a pretty good fighter and is nice when she needs to be, but her personality and clothing style and such... she just rubs me the wrong way._ *Cough.* _No! Must resist her influence! Then there's Blake. Anti-Schnee. I don't know what her problem is, but at least she's usually out of the way. But that's kind of creepy that she always wears that stupid bow; isn't she, like, my age?_

 _It would have been nice to get on Pyrrha's team, but I guess I can't change that now. And I'm having second thoughts... she stood up for the rabbit-spawn girl at lunch. Who seriously cares about the stupid beast people? All they do is cause trouble... like mother._ *Sigh.* The white-haired girl wiped a lonely tear off of her cheek. _It's in the past. A Schnee is strong._

 _Then there's stupid Jaune. Such a wimp and a klutz; who would ever like him? I don't understand what he thinks he's trying to achieve by flirting with me. Nora... There's absolutely no way I'd live with her. She's a nut. But at least there's Ren to keep her in line._

 _The stupid team that lives above us... They're all scum. Just as low as faunus in my books. And their idiot leader is why I'm sitting here with nothing to do in the first place. A cheater, sore loser, bully... I doubt there's a single redeeming quality. I'd love for him to be expelled, or even put in prison._

 _The professors are "out there"... The flirty old man who tells irrelevant stories and the hyperactive history enthusiast are the worst. I suppose Mrs. Goodwitch is a pretty good professor. She tries to keep all the lunatics in order, and isn't half bad at officiating for the dueling class. Well, I guess anyone could do that really. And the headmaster is so kind! He's the father I never had._

 _A couple students are "out there" in a different way. I think it was Team GAZE or something like that. The one is probably a registered psychopath, but that's hardly an excuse for a girl to kiss another girl in public. Those feelings we get are just stupid distractions. It's common sense that I'll marry a worthy man once I'm forced to take over the company. Well... if I ever find one. All those stupid suitors were terrible. Maybe... no._

 _I wonder when Ruby will get back._ The other two teammates were still doing their own things, so Weiss shifted around a little and decided to check on her stomach. A gentle poke still hurt a lot... Hopefully it would get better soon. The stupid Tangerina lady had better not be wrong.

There was a knock on the door which Yang answered after setting down her controller. "Oh, Professor Goodwitch," the blonde said into the doorway. "Come in; Weiss is right over there." The brawler pointed at Weiss's bed.

As Goodwitch walked toward Weiss, Yang sat down in _Weiss's_ chair and Blake gently closed her book. "Alright," the assistant headmaster said, "I think it would be easiest if you just listed off the five W's." Weiss's confusion must have shown. "Right, you didn't go to public school... Ahem! Who, what, when, where, why. ...And how. Don't ask."

So everyone wanted to listen. Great...

Actually, she heard the pounding of feet approach their room, and Ruby popped back into the room. She was about to say something, but sat down in her own chair next to Yang after seeing the situation. Yes, _everyone_ wanted to listen.

The heiress almost gulped, but recovered quickly and cleared her throat instead. "Okay. Well it was Cardin, obviously. He's been a pest to everyone and everything, and when I brought it up he challenged me. It was decided we would duel." She thought a moment. "Who... what... where... Well, he challenged me at the dorm and then we went to the arenas, but you already knew that and I don't think that's even all that useful. Why do we need all these W's?"

"Just... Continue your story, please, Miss Schnee."

"When... It was after class got out at fifteen o' clock. How... that doesn't really make sense. Okay, anyway, we went to the arenas and dueled and I won. Got him all the way to zero percent. But the _slime_ wouldn't stay down; when I started walking away, he came after me again and hit me in the back with his _stupid_ lump of metal. I _obviously_ wasn't expecting him to descend to _that_ level of filth so I wasn't prepared and fell over. I dropped my weapon, and he didn't care. The duel was over, but he kept trying to hit me, and eventually... he pinned me down with his mace. Then he... kept... grinding it into me." The girl paused for a moment, but nobody interrupted. "I didn't have a choice. Once I finally got to Myrtenaster, I sliced at him with her. Then I had the chance to escape. After that, the hospital and then here. What exactly did you want to know?"

"Well," said Goodwitch, "Mr. Winchester had a slightly different story. Are you positive that the duel was over before his attack?"

"Yes! I'm not that stupid to turn away from my active opponent. I've had years of-"

The professor held out a hand to cut off Weiss. "That's enough. Seventeen is a little young, but you're almost adults. You _will_ be adults by the time you graduate. And I expect your behavior to reflect that. While Mr. Winchester's behavior was a bit extreme, you, Miss Schnee, did not need to challenge another student to a duel. It would be better to simply inform a faculty member of the issue. If you _do_ feel the need to duel another student outside of class times, please have supervision. That being said, please inform us of any further incidents, and I hope you recover swiftly. Thank you, girls. If there are no questions, I'll be on my way."

Was there much else to say? The heiress settled for, "I hope _he_ is properly punished for this."

"Of course. Have a good evening." The assistant headmaster parted from the room.

Silence had a very short reign which was interrupted by a red-haired team leader. "They have pizza tonight, and not much else."

"Pizza?" Weiss asked.

"You haven't had pizza before?!" Yang shouted, clearly shocked. "You've been missing out, Princess!"

Ruby continued the explanation. "It's round and has a doughy crust, then there's sauce and cheese and all types of toppings and they cook it. It's really, really good!"

The heiress chuckled primly. "That's too good. I can't believe you actually believed me! Of course I've had pizza; _everyone_ has pizza. I'll just have cheese. Two slices should be fine."

"Bo-ring!" taunted Yang. "I like _everything_ on mine."

"What do you want to drink?" Ruby asked.

"Lemonade, of course!" interrupted Yang.

The blonde received a slap on the shoulder from her sister. "Not you!"

"Just skim milk, please. And if they have any salads or-"

"Nope, they just have pizza. Okay, guys, let's go."

Three quarters of Team RWBY walked out of the room, leaving Weiss alone.

* * *

The heiress was really not accustomed to being bored. The only thing that allowed her to keep her sanity for the ten minutes it took for her fr- _teammates_ to get pizza was Mr. Fluffschnee. However, he was promptly slipped back under the sheets as soon as she heard two sets of feet( 13) outside the door. Ruby was the first to enter, carrying her own plate of pizza with one hand, leaving the second free to open doors and use Scrolls. Next was Yang, who dumped a plate with two slices of cheese pizza next to Weiss and took her own stack of pizza to a chair. Blake had a plate of pizza and a plate with four glasses on it. She came by Weiss, allowing her to take her milk, then stopped by Yang and Ruby, who had lemonade and strawberry milk, respectively. The black-haired girl had warm tea for herself.

"Did anyone remember napkins?" Weiss asked.

"Yup! I usually need about four for myself..." the team leader answered. She pulled a giant wad of the objects out of her uniform pocket – which hadn't looked any thicker than the other pocket and didn't seem to change size upon release of its stash – and distributed them to the team. The room was quiet for a while as everyone ate and drank.

"Okay, Weiss, ready to get your butt handed to you?" Yang asked, followed by an unrestrained belch.

The white-haired girl finished her mouthful then answered. "I'm still eating, Xiao Long."

" _Wow_ , you're still working on two pieces and I'm done with six. Step up your game!"

"Mmh nm um nung," said Ruby. The younger girl swallowed and then tried again. "I'm still eating, and I only had three pieces. You must get it from dad."

"Well then why can you eat an entire plate of cookies in under thirty seconds, Rubes?"

"Cookies are different! Maybe I got that from mom... Hey! I'm still eating! Stop distracting me!"

As Weiss attempted to finish her meal somewhat quickly without looking like a _pig_ like _Yang_ , the brawler put a disc into the console and navigated through some menus.

Everyone, except Yang, finished at around the same time. "I'll take the dishes back!" Ruby announced. There was no time for protesting... and why would anyone protest anyway? _Zip. Zup. Zoom._ And then there were three.

"Okay, let's get this over with," huffed Weiss. "What do I need to do?"

"Take this." The temporary cripple was handed a controller.

"Um," Weiss started, a bit flustered by her lack of knowledge. "What do I do with this? Andohmygosh, shouldn't I wash my hands first?!"

Yang shook her head. " _Monty_ , you're a sorry specimen. Just lick off your fingers; it's fine. And here, like this." The video game master turned the controller around and patted it into Weiss's hands. "And one for you, Blake."

The black-haired girl set down her book and caught the flying plastic projectile easily. "I've never played before, either..." she whispered.

"Don't worry; I'm sure you'll be a natural, Blakey!" reassured Yang.

"Hey! What about me?" accused Weiss.

"Nah, you're a lost cause, Princess."

"Then why did you make me join in the first place?!"

"It's funny when you're mad or incompetent, and _both_ is even better," the blonde somehow got out through her Cheshire grin.

"I'm _done_."

"But you haven't even started yet!" Yang pressed a few buttons. " _This_ is Grimm Eclipse Twenty-Four B. It's a really great series, and this is the newest edition. The A edition is for little kids, and the B versions are a bit better. Ruby and I got partway through already, but we're nice enough to start over with the team. Okay, so some earlier editions had just a few characters to choose from, but all modern versions have character customization." Yang moved a cursor on the screen to 'Start', then 'Story Mode', then 'New Game'. "Okay, I'll make my character first. So you can choose if it's a boy or a girl" – Yang chose a boy – "and faunus or human" – she picked a human – "and then customize their looks."

As the game guru moved sliders all over the place to mold a _really_ tall, _really_ muscular, _really_ good-looking but gruff guy, Weiss had a question. "Why would someone make a faunus? There couldn't possibly be any advantages, could there?"

"Actually, they get night vision and some people like the ears and tails and stuff," the mentor answered. "But humans get bonuses to buying and selling. It's a trade-off."

"How would night vision work? It's not like you're the character."

"It just doesn't dim the screen as much in dark places. Simple."

"Oh. Why can you make a boy character if you're a girl?"

"Some people like to make characters like themselves, but some people like to make their character look like someone famous, and others want to make eye candy. I mean, you have to stare at your character the whole time you play, so may as well make a stud, right?"

Weiss sighed in annoyance and blushed a bit.

"And then weapons and name, then a quick personality quiz that determines your Semblance." Yang chose a gigantic sword, named her character 'UberHotMasta24-7-365', and got the Semblance called 'Rage', which looked like it represented Yang's real one. "Okay, Weiss, you're next."

"O...kay." The TV displayed a fresh, unmodified, generic character. "How do I...?"

"This here is how you change the selection, and then you confirm with this button or go back with that one."

"Right..." The heiress chose a girl, human of course, and made her as fancy as possible. "Wait, what? Why the Dust is there a butt slider?"

"Don't you worry, the designers thought of _everything_. Just slide that one all the way to the left; you're a tight-a**."

"I'M DONE. TAKE YOUR STUPID CONTROLLER." Weiss threw the aforementioned object at Yang, who grinned as she caught it and gently handed it back to the heiress. The blonde wouldn't take no for an answer and showed this by pinning the white-haired girl's hands to the controller.

Weiss sighed angrily and continued the customization. She was pleasantly surprised to see that Dust Rapiers were an option, and chose that. When she got to the name, Yang ripped the controller out of her hands and punched in 'Ice Queen W'. As hard as she tried to go back and change it, the blonde would re-input the name and continue to the next screen. The heiress eventually gave up and just did the quiz thing, which gave her a 'Control' Semblance, which apparently gave her limited telekinesis and mind control. How would that work in a game? No idea. "Okay, fine. My character is done."

Ruby burst back into the room at that moment. "Okay, team! The dishes are all gone and I am ready to kick some butt!"

"Weiss and I already made our characters," the game guru informed her sister. "You can be next."

"Oh, sure! I should probably make it different from my previous one." Weiss was disappointed to see Ruby choose an extremely short bat faunus girl and squee in delight at its supposed cuteness. The character got a pink, black, white, and yellow marbled outfit; short lime green hair; and a gun-spear a bit like Pyrrha's. "This is one of the best weapons in the game, suckers!" she teased.

"Why didn't anyone tell me that?" Weiss sulked.

The character was named 'Fruit Salad 123' and Ruby answered the personality quiz quite unlike what Weiss knew to be her real behavior, earning her a 'Teleportation' Semblance.

"Hey, no fair! I didn't know you could mess with it to get different results!" the heiress complained.

"It's all part of the game," sang Yang. "Now Blake has to make a character."

The black-haired girl seemed to have paid attention to the other three and didn't require any special assistance from the two experienced team members. She selected a female cat faunus with a black tail but not ears, but dressed it in white and gave it light brown hair. It looked a bit like its creator, but the clothing seemed chosen to make the character different. Besides, Blake didn't have a tail or anything like that. Next was the weapon – a wakizashi(14) on a chain tether – and the name, 'Risen Shadow'. She got a 'Stealth' Semblance, which apparently provided limited invisibility _and_ made the character fairly quiet.

"Great choices, Blake," encouraged Ruby. "Okay, let's get started!"

* * *

"Ah, it's attacking me!"

"So get out of the way...?" Yang replied.

"How?"

"The joystick, Weiss. Isn't it obvious?"

"Ah, right. Okay, safe. But how do I get rid of it?"

"The Grimm? Hit it. Duh."

"Which button is that again?"

"The one on the right, Weiss. Jeesh, I thought you were good at learning."

"Oh my Oum oh my Oum oh my Oum the ursa is after me it's hitting me ah nooooo no I'm dying help help help help!" Weiss panicked.

Her teammates didn't arrive in time, and her character died. "Don't worry, Ice Queen," Yang said, "we'll bring your corpse back to the respawn point. Easy." UberHotMasta24-7-365 headed over toward Weiss's avatar.

Ruby's nearly rainbow character was completely surrounded by a horde of thirty or more Grimm, but was killing them rapidly without being scratched. The player was cackling maniacally. "This is so fun! Wow, maybe I should've chosen this awesome weapon on my first character!"

Blake, too, was somehow holding her own. Risen Shadow did sort of what one would expect – the avatar popped out of nowhere, murdered a couple of Grimm, and then got out of the way by disappearing for a while.

"Oh, come on! How is it fair that Blake is so good at this?" the heiress whined. Her character was dumped off at the resurrection area. "Okay, let's try again... Ooh, wonder what this button does?"

That particular button was the Semblance button. Since her character was in the middle of a plain grassy field with no enemies – the Grimm in that area had already been cleared out by the group – the Semblance had nothing to do except bash some rocks into each other. "Is that the telekinesis?"

"I'd say so," Yang replied. "C'mon, let's get back to the others."

* * *

"MUAHAHAHAHA! COWER BEFORE YOUR MASTER, PITIFUL GRIMM! YOUR LIVES ARE FORFEIT!" Ice Queen W was flinging beowolves and ursai at each other with her Semblance, and had an enthralled King Taijitu (the game taught Weiss that that was the name of the two-headed snake Grimm) which was crushing everything around it.

"Wow! Go, Weiss!" encouraged the team leader.

"I can't believe they allow something so powerful to be in this game," Blake remarked.

However, the heiress was too enraptured in her minions' battles to watch her avatar. Ice Queen W was surrounded by ursai and beowolves, and her Aura was steadily dropping.

"Might want to pay attention to your character instead of your targets," Yang casually commented.

"Ah! No! Attack! Attack! Attack!"

"Um, Weiss?" probed Ruby. "That's the jump button. You want the one on the right."

" _Dust_. … … … …I'm dead! How could you three abandon me like that?!"

"Y'know, just needed to teach you a lesson or two," Yang answered.

"I will have my revenge, you Grimm scum!"

* * *

"Guys, it's past eleven. Maybe we should go to bed?" suggested Blake.

"No! Just one more level!"

"W-weiss, I think you might be getting a little bit too much into it..." Ruby warned.

The argument was ended when everyone's view of the now-dark television was cut off by a Yang Xiao Long holding the business end of a power cord. "Yeah, maybe we could stop for now." The heiress was enraged, but before she could do anything much, the blonde added, "It auto-saves. Everything will be there _if_ you ever decide to play this 'trash' again."

To prepare for bed, Blake helped Weiss off of the latter's bed, and the heiress found that she could walk around a bit without any support. "I think I'm getting a little better," she remarked, prodding her stomach gently.

"Of course you're getting better; this is the first time you've played," said Yang.

"No, I mean my injury."

"Oh."

The four emptied their bladders, cleaned their faces, brushed their teeth, and changed into pajamas. "You know," said Weiss as Ruby helped her into bed, "that was a lot better than I expected it to be. You're lucky that I'm even admitting it."

"Thanks. Goodnight, team." "I'm going to turn the lights off now." "See you in the morning!"

 _Goodnight, Mr. Fluffschnee._

* * *

Weiss rolled over and opened her eyes, only to see a beam of sunlight shining directly at her retinas. But wait... She rolled over, and it didn't hurt! "Good morning, team! I think it's all healed!"

However, she was apparently the first one to wake up. She was met with a, "Thatsh nyshe... Five more minutes..." from above, a sleepy groan from the opposite side of the room, and a snore from the upper side of the other end of the room.

Today was going to be a great day.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

(1) yumanumilus: Unanimous. Unofficial Ruby vocab skills.

(2) "its knees knocked and its eyes watered": No, not possible. Just Portly tales. Grimm don't have emotion according to my headcanon, but that doesn't have a good place to be said in this diatribe.

(3) Port didn't break any records. He's full of s***; just ignore most of what he says in his stories. It wasn't twenty, and twenty wasn't a new record anyway.

(4) "prepare for part two next week": No, I'm probably not going to actually write that. You'll get a study session or something of the sort that briefly goes over headcanon about the Grimm, though, and there will be a few more class sessions, just not _all_ the lectures and not before there's something more interesting in between.

(5) "You're such a hypocrite": Of course, Weiss is, too. Shh, don't tell her – she might get mad. And a mad Weiss is actually not scary; it's rather cute. Meh. I'm disproving myself. But... you don't actually have a way to tell Weiss anyway.

(6) Okay, maybe I am rather sadistic... This scene is being fairly entertaining to write. And that's not even the way I originally planned for it to go. Hopefully you squirmed in your seats a bit(7).

(7) That's a bit presumptuous. Perhaps you aren't sitting in a seat.

(8) I seriously do not plan this stuff. I wanted Weiss to yell at Ruby for taking effort away from walking in order to talk, and that's what came out. Couldn't help the decent setup for Yang.

(9) Stop lying, Weiss. You're huggable, but you just don't know it at this point in the story.

(10) (a) As far as I know, Atlas is more arctic and more militant than the other kingdoms, and I figured the latter warrants military time. I personally use 24-hour time on anything I can change.

(b) Weiss was only confused because she's a bit delirious at the moment. She's smart enough that it normally isn't an issue.

(c) 3 pm is when their last class ends for the day (9-10, 11-12, lunch time, 1-2-3 covers their four classes), then she walked back to the dorm and challenged Cardin (+5-10 minutes), retrieved her weapon and went to the arena (+10-15 minutes), fought (+5 minutes), called and got help (+10-15 minutes), hobbled to the admin tower (+30? minutes), and was "examined" (+5 minutes or so). The average total of those is 1 hour 12.5 minutes, so 4:17 is reasonable – I decided on that exact number because that's the time when I wrote the line. You're welcome for overthinking everything. I also tried sitting on my bed and getting off a couple times to decide whether it would disturb Weiss's injury.

(11) We like to avoid Earth brands here on Remnant, and we also like to be as unbiased as possible in doing so. I know Remnant has at least television, which was seen in one of the first episodes, and I'll just assume that there's a decent bit of other tech as well. It just isn't used much in canon since it hardly does anything for plot.

(12) If you haven't figured it out, Mr. Fluffschnee is actually not alive. Weiss is just applying her very limited imagination.

(13) heard two sets of feet: Remember, RWBY has two loud people, a princess, and a ninja. _Heard._

(14) wakizashi: Medium-length Japanese-style sword. Shorter than a katana. It felt like more of Blake's style.

?

Profit

^ See what I did there?

Darn. I really didn't want Weiss to do anything that would remotely seem like she supported Jaune, but there it is. You're welcome if you ship that, I suppose, but if you _do_ ship that, I don't know what you're doing here unless you're waiting for the actual plot.

Oh! According to V3E1, 20% Aura is where the red starts. Fun fact.

 **Chapter Synopsis:** What do you expect? It's Friday. They have the main classes again and then head into the weekend. Unexpected violence; pizza; luring Ms. Prim  & Proper into playing video games.

 **Changes Synopsis:** Once again, nothing to put here. Some things are pre-Jaunedice, but that's about all there is that relates to canon.

 **Edits:** November 28, 2015: Changed a bunch of stuff in the game scene to conform to the TV's location in V3Chp4.

 **Next update:** May as well continue the tradition of saying that I have no clue, but if I write as much as I hope to, it'll be under a week. However, there's plenty of real life anticipated, so it'll probably be a bit over a week again. Result: 10 days. Guesstopher was correct. (Christopher, Guesstopher... Meh.)


	5. Check

Chapter 5 – Check

 **Author's Note:**

Useless statistics: Chapter finished November 10, 2015. Published November 11, 2015. Total word count: 7070. Body word count: 6022 (85%). Writing Time: 10h58m, including ~1h searching for chronology clues, plus ~1h editing. Chapter Rating: K+ for very slight innuendo... but you had to read the rest to get here, so nobody cares.

The chapter title uses the chess sense. That reminds me: The story title should technically have semicolons. I often tout the horn of the Semicolon Hero when I review other stories, but I did think about this when I made the title. If that was the entire list, it should have either an "and" before "Twelve Years" or semicolons in place of all the commas, but _hint_. There's material before the Twelve Hours... (You're welcome for only saying that there isn't an apocalypse.)

The more I think about what I've written so far, what I'm planning on covering/changing/adding to catch up to canon, and what I'm planning for my plot, the more I realize that the chapters I've done so far are basically only an introduction. Well, I suppose I'll keep plugging away at this "historic" stuff. If you just want the main plot, wait until the chapter added is called "Hours", which should be about three chapters after this.

Wow! At one point during this chapter, I was experiencing a complete lack of motivation to do anything, and then I did a homework assignment, and somehow it made me feel productive again. Usually assignments are supposed to make you feel useless and brain-drained. I'll take it.

The bad part about having long chapters is that stories get buried quite quickly in this fandom so new people rarely see the story. Can't be helped. Q_Q But this is a shorter chapter. I just couldn't write that much on the topic without making up boatloads of bogus irrelevant boring crap.

My prediction from last time ended up being quite true. I've spent five days hardly doing anything not school-related, and two days mostly gaming to take a break. But here's some story for youse:

* * *

Unfortunately, Cardin had not yet been expelled from Beacon. It was currently Tuesday of their third week at Beacon, and things had gone fairly well so far. The assignments were easy for Weiss, but Ruby was struggling a bit and often asked for help. The heiress's aid was making a significant impact, _of course_ , giving the team leader a mix between 'A's and 'B's. Yang... Well, the heiress had mostly given up on that girl. She did her assignments, sure, but she never really studied or asked for help, and her grades reflected that – mostly 'C's, with a few 'B's. Blake was doing well. She hardly seemed to exist, but she had similar grades to Ruby's.

Team CRDL was still a bunch of dunces. Weiss was sure of it, yet she never saw any of them actually do anything explicitly evil. Sometimes when she came around a corner, though, she would catch glimpses of one of the lackeys quickly pulling their hands in and pretending to do nothing.

JNPR was doing fairly well. Ren seemed to be successful, both in his academics and in his efforts to keep his pet demon under control. The orange-haired packet of energy was somehow managing to not flunk out, but really didn't seem to care either way. She was definitely still annoying, although she didn't actually cause much trouble, unlike what she suspected of Team IDIOT (CRDL). Pyrrha was really the glue for the team, which made Weiss wonder again why she didn't end up with the leader position. The redhead had excellent grades – almost flawless, just like Weiss's – and put in a lot of time helping Jaune, and to a lesser extent, Nora. The heiress personally thought it was a waste of time, but she couldn't do much about it, and it wasn't her team, anyway.

Classwork covered most of the weekdays, although there were always a couple of hours for chatting and Grimm Eclipse in the evenings, in both of which the entire team actually did participate. The heiress's … yes, the only proper label was "addiction" … to Grimm Eclipse had mostly faded. She still enjoyed it, but no longer enslaved almost every possible minute to the game. That was a rather embarrassing few days...

The previous weekend, the team had gone into Vale for some window shopping, although they had bought a shower rack that would accommodate the team's combined stash of products, and Blake ran off somewhere and came back with a new book. Later that evening, they had shared stories about interesting fights they'd experienced. Weiss was actually beginning to enjoy being in the company of her new friends.

But that didn't mean she liked everything about all of them, and it certainly did not mean she liked all the teams in the school, especially CRDL. They were currently in dueling class, and Jaune was fighting against Cardin. Actually, that wasn't the best way to put it; this was certainly not a fight. Cardin was beating on Jaune, who was completely useless in both the offensive and defensive departments.

Jaune charged at his opponent once again, slashing downward as he neared the bully. He completely missed; Cardin didn't even need to step to the side. When Jaune realized his mistake and turned to face Cardin, the mace-wielder launched the blonde klutz across the room with a solid whack. The Arc boy bounced twice but was too stupid to care: He got up and charged once again.

Cardin easily blocked the attack with his weapon's shaft and easily overpowered Jaune in the ensuing pushing match – either one could have easily deflected his opponent to the side rather than applying more muscle, but neither was bright enough to realize that – and finished his domination by kneeing the amateur in the crotch.

Jaune fell to the floor and stayed down, so Cardin took the liberty of striking the boy repeatedly with the butt end of his weapon. As the bully raised his weapon for a finishing smash, Professor Goodwitch stepped out onto the stage and telekinetically halted his weapon.

"Cardin, that's enough," the woman said. "Students, as you can see, Jaune's Aura has now dropped into the red. As you all know, that signifies the end of a tournament-style duel." She turned to face the blonde, who was beginning to push himself to his feet. "Mr. Arc, class has been going far too long for you to continue ignoring your Aura level. Try to keep an eye on your Scroll." The instructor then addressed the entire first-year class once more: "I have an announcement. You may have heard rumors, and I will put those to rest. The fortieth Vytal Festival will be held in the middle of next semester, only a few months from now. You will have the opportunity to fight against students from all the different kingdoms during the tournament. If you wish to stand a chance against them, I recommend practicing as much as possible. You will be representing all of Vale."

"I can't wait!" exclaimed Weiss, turning to her teammates. "It was held in Atlas two years ago, but I was too young to participate. This time, I'll be sure to win!"

"Not if I win first," Yang interjected.

They were complete equals the last time they fought, so Weiss was undeterred by her teammate's taunt. The heiress would make sure to practice more than the brawler, but at this point nothing was guaranteed. So she kept her mouth shut and turned her head away with a, "Hmph."

"Guys guys guys guys guys!" pestered Ruby. "I heard from a certain source that they're having strawberries again today, so let's go get lunch!"

Team RWBY acknowledged their growling stomachs and headed to the cafeteria. JNPR followed after; Pyrrha had to give her leader a pep talk to soothe the pain of his crushing defeat.

Sure enough, there were strawberries – Ruby grabbed an entire plate full of them, entirely skipping out on regular foods. The heiress opted for a chicken Caesar salad, plus a pear and milk. _I can eat reasonably if I want,_ she thought. _The dunce nurse can't convince me to be fat._

As had become customary, teams RWBY and JNPR sat together for lunch and chatted about recent school topics for over half of the meal. Then Nora took over, telling absurd, likely fabricated, stories. She was currently on her third of the day. "So..." the orange-haired girl began. "There we were... In the middle of the night..."

Ren corrected, "It was day."

Everyone except Ruby, Yang, Pyrrha and Jaune was done eating. Weiss decided to file her fingernails to hopefully block out Nora's tales and Blake took out a book for similar reasons. Yang would have usually finished eating a while ago, but she was enthralled by Nora's tale... somehow.

Nora continued, "We were surrounded by ursai."

"They were beowolves," Ren patiently added.

"DOZENS OF THEM!"

"Two of them..."

"But they were no match! And in the end, Ren and I took them down and made a boatload of Lien selling ursa skin rugs!"

"*Sigh*... She's been having this recurring dream for nearly a month now... And she always changes the details..."

Now that the story was done, Pyrrha addressed Jaune. "Jaune, are you okay? You aren't making much progress on those chicken nuggets."

The heiress had a hunch that Pyrrha _liked_ the boy. Why? She had no idea. The entire situation was repulsive to Weiss. Pyrrha was an amazing fighter, but she had really strange social preferences. She was like a second mother to him.

"Huh?" Jaune came out of his reverie. "Oh, yeah! Why?"

Ruby, being the overly people-sensitive person she was, had apparently also been paying attention to Jaune. "It's just that you seem a little... not okay," she settled for.

"Eh, guys, I'm fine," Jaune nervously chuckled. "Seriously, look." The boy grinned awkwardly and gave a thumbs-up. He was clearly _not_ fine, not that Weiss cared.

In the following awkward silence, the two teams were distracted by taunting and laughing from a few tables over. Team CRDL was once again picking on Velvet. Weiss let out a tiny chuckle, but remembered that the rest of RWBY and JNPR stood up for the animal girl for some reason and held back from full-fledged laughter.

"Jaune, Cardin has been picking on you since the first week of school," Pyrrha noted.

"Who? Cardin Winchester?" The blonde wasn't fooling anyone except himself. D- for effort. "Nah. He just likes to mess around, you know? Practical jokes!" he dismissed with a wave of his hand.

"He's a bully," Ruby asserted. "He constantly picks on the faunus, he seriously tried to harm Weiss a while back, and he always does his best to make your life a pain."

"Oh, please. Name one time he's 'bullied' me," said Jaune, complete with air quotes.

"Last Wednesday, he knocked your Scroll off your belt in the hallway," Ruby said, counting off one finger.

"Ooh, and just yesterday he expanded your shield in the doorway when we were leaving World History," added Yang. Ruby put up a second finger.

"Two Tuesdays ago when we got our rocket lockers, Cardin launched you off into the Emerald Forest," Pyrrha noted. RWBY's leader added a third finger.

"I didn't land _that_ far from the school," argued Jaune. Why was he even protesting? Everyone knew that Cardin was the rotten scum of the school, probably even worse than the faunus.

"Jaune, you know..." said Pyrrha, once again acting motherly, "if you ever need help, you can just ask."

"OOH!" continued Nora, leaping to her feet. "We'll break his legs!" Weiss acknowledged that that idea would probably make the school safer for a while, but it was sure to get them into trouble. If there was a vote, she'd rather not do it.

"Guys, really, it's fine," denied the blonde boy once again. "Besides, it's not like he's only a jerk to me. He's a jerk to everyone."

To emphasize his point, Cardin was once again pulling Velvet's ears.

"That doesn't make it any better," said Weiss.

"Exactly. I can't stand people like him," Pyrrha agreed, clenching her teeth.

Jaune nervously chuckled and left the table, taking his tray to the dish return. The rest of JNPR followed with drooping expressions, leaving Team RWBY alone at the table.

"I'm sure Pyrrha will help," Ruby persuaded. "I don't think there's much we can do right now."

"I need to blow off some steam," said Yang, standing to leave. "I'll be in one of the personal training rooms at the gym."

"Maybe we could _all_ head to the arenas," Blake suggested. "Practice never hurts, and it's better as a group."

The comment was met with a "Yep," a nod, and a "Sure," so Team RWBY retrieved their weapons and headed to the gym at the southwest of campus.

* * *

"Yes, yes, prior to the Faunus Rights Revolution – whilemorepopularlyknownasthe Faunus War – human kind was quite- quite _adamant_ about centralizing faunus populationinMenagerie." Just another wonderful Wednesday World History lecture with Professor Oobleck. Of course they'd be talking about faunus things... It was a dead subject to Weiss: Faunus were evil and deserved any kind of oppression for all the horrible things they'd done; end of story.

The Doctor took a sip from his mug and zipped out from behind his desk. "Now! While this must feel like ancienthistorytomanyofyou, it is _imperative_ to remember thattheseare relatively recent events. Why, the repercussions ofthe uprising canstillbeseentothis day." _Zoom._ *Sip.* _(Maybe he does have a Semblance similar to Ruby's...)_ "Now," _Zip._ "have anyamongyou been subjugated or discriminatedagainst( 1) because of your faunus heritage?"

Velvet, who was sitting two rows ahead of Weiss, and a few other students tentatively raised their hands. _Of course they've experienced discrimination. Why wouldn't anyone hate them?_

"Dreadful! Simply dreadful! Remember,students, itis _precisely_ thiskindofignorance that breeds violence." *Sip.*

 _Ignorance? If anything,_ he's _the one who isn't informed. All the things they've done... And so what if there's violence, if it's_ right _?_

"I mean, Imean,Imean, justlookatwhathappenedtotheWhite Fang." _Zoom._ "Now, which oneofyou young scholars can tell me whatmanytheoristsbelievetobethe turning point," _Zip._ "inthe third year ofthewar?"

Easy. She'd had to go through some of this stuff in her studies at home. Why not answer? It was a great opportunity to show off and eliminate any suspicions that she didn't pay attention to much of the course. Weiss raised her hand.

"Yes?" Excellent. He called on her.

"The battle at Fort Castle!"

"Precisely! And... Whocantellme theadvantage thefaunus had over GeneralLagoon'sforces?"

As that question was asked, Cardin flicked a paper triangle at the back of Jaune's head. " _Hey,_ " the latter remarked as he woke up from his improperly timed nap.

 _Zip._ "Mr. Arc! Finally contributing toclass! Thisis excellent, _excellent_! _What_ isthe _answer_?"

Yes, this was excellent. The lazy buffoon would finally have to pay for his bad habits and poor academic prowess.

"Uh..." Jaune said uneasily, looking around the room for any hints. "The... _answer_... The advantage, uh, the faunus..." – his gaze turned toward Pyrrha – "had... over... that guy's _stuff_... Uh, binoculars!"

Wow. That was horrible. Most of the rest of the class agreed with the heiress as they began laughing.

*Sip.* "Very funny, Mr. Arc," Oobleck scolded. "Cardin, perhaps youwould care toshareyourthoughtsonthesubject!?"

A two-for-one deal! Both of the idiots were getting some public shaming.

"Well," said Cardin as he reclined in his seat, "I know it's a lot easier to train an _animal_ than a soldier..."

Yeah, probably. But that definitely wasn't the answer for which Oobleck was looking.

Pyrrha once again rushed to the aid of faunus everywhere... "You're not the most... open-minded of individuals, are you, Cardin?"

"What?" the boy snapped. "You got a problem?"

"No," she replied, "I have the answer: It's night vision. Many faunus are known to have nearly perfect sight in the dark."

 _Which is how they got to Mother without alerting anyone..._ (2)

Cardin growled, clearly angry that Pyrrha made a fool of him, but Blake decided to add fuel to the fire. "General Lagoon was inexperienced and made the mistake of trying to ambush the faunus in their sleep. His massive army was outmatched, and the General was captured." She glared at "Mister" Winchester. "Perhaps if he'd payed attention in class, he wouldn't have been remembered as such a failure."

That got to the brunette, who stood up as if to confront Blake right then, but he was stopped by the professor. _Zoom._ "Mr. Winchester, _please_ take your seat. You _and_ canboth see meafterclass foradditionalreadings." *Sip.* _Zip._ "Now! Moving on!( 3) GeneralLagoon hadbeenplaced in charge of a _huge_ proportionofthe Anti-faunus military." _Zoom._ "He was captured andmanyofhismen were slainonthespot, putting a huge dent inthe Humanists' offensive." *Sip.* "Why,infact, the faunus wereabletoclaim several sectors of Vale and Vacuo( 4). Thatis, untilthehumansof Atlas and Mistral decidedtosendreinforcements nearthebeginningofthe fourth year." _Zip, zoom, zep_ (5) _._ "The faunus, whohadaccesstoonly more limited formsof transportation, were once again pushed back."

Yeah... No more questions or other interesting stuff. Just history. Time for Weiss to tune him out as usual...

* * *

They were here today on a field trip to collect sap. There should have been better people for the task than students, but when Professor Peaches made the announcement about the trip the previous Thursday after Dueling, she(6) said it was also intended as an exploration of biology and geography.

But very few of the students were interested in carefully analyzing the plants, wildlife, or layout; they were much too busy non-critically observing Forever Fall Forest with a great sense of awe(7). It was much better in person than in Weiss's painting that she had brought to Beacon. Red was only a color, yet the forest was able to inspire a sense of red in _all_ the senses. However, this was not the traditional red of violence or anger. It was the red to which Weiss was accustomed: The red of luxury, comfort, and beauty. The crisp autumn air brought freshness and relaxation, free of any pollen, and at just the right temperature to prevent sweaty discomfort during any physical activity while not being cold enough to encourage visitors to wear any extra layers. Pure red leaves fell constantly; it was scientifically proven that all the trees in Forever Fall were indeed constantly shedding their foliage, yet trees taken out of the forest lost that touch and other species introduced to the forest died quickly without showing any sign of this quality. A lonely mountain peak was visible on the horizon in the occasional clearings, providing a feeling of grandeur and exploration – the forest _was_ located only twenty kilometers northeast of Beacon Academy, but it was still rare for anyone to go that far from Vale's walls. Autumn was supposed to be a season of death, yet Forever Fall was most certainly filled with vibrant life.

Unfortunately, the mood was mostly ruined by Professor Goodwitch's presence. She was officiating the excursion because of Professor Peaches' sudden onset of the flu. The assistant headmaster got right to business: "Yes, students, the Forest of Forever Fall is indeed beautiful. But we are not here to sight-see. Professor Peaches asked all of you to collect samples from the trees deep inside this forest. And _I'm_ here to make sure that none of you die while doing so."

The professor abruptly halted, almost causing Weiss and Ruby to run into her, but the woman continued her instructions without hesitation. "Each of you is to gather one jar's worth of red sap. Only the widest, oldest trees will do. In addition, this forest is full of the creatures of Grimm, so be _sure_ to stay by your teammates. We will rendezvous back here at four o' clock. Have fun!"

'Have fun.' She certainly didn't mean that. No matter; the first-year students dispersed after each person took a jar from the large cases that a few appointed individuals were carrying. Jaune was pulled off by Cardin Winchester... Since the World History lecture six days ago(8), the two had grown strangely inseparable. Pyrrha had stopped by Team RWBY's room several times since then to voice her worries about Jaune's behavior. He had become more distant, distracted, gloomy, and pathetic than usual, although that wasn't the vocabulary his teammate had used. Although the heiress really didn't like him, she wouldn't quite say she hated him. She had actually grown to _like_ having him around so she could laugh at how useless and foolish he was, but this depression was pathetic without any of the humor. It was disconcerting.

The heiress also caught Ruby watching Blonde Boy leave. _Everyone_ seemed a bit worried for Jaune. Weiss's leader sighed and told her team, "Okay, guys, let's get going," lacking most of the usual pep and vigor.

The four trudged along, going deeper into Forever Fall. After a few minutes of hearing the crunch of grass and leaves underfoot, their main path became indistinguishable from the small trails between trees; the forest was becoming more spaced out because each tree required more room to grow. "Ruby, I think these ones might be big enough," Weiss said. "What do you think?"

"Sure! Let's try." The pseudo-redhead unfurled Crescent Rose and raised the weapon toward a tree, ready to zip forward and spill its fluids.

"Ruby, stop!" Blake warned. "We're not here to gather lumber, just sap. We should be more careful than that with our natural resources."

"Sorry treeeeeees! I love you little red guys!" gushed the leader as she lowered her weapon and rushed over to hug one of the plants.

"You didn't actually do anything yet..." the black-haired girl mumbled.

"Uh, Blake?" Yang asked. "I think we'll still need to cut the trees open, just maybe not _that_ much."

"Yeah. I know." The girl took out Gambol Shroud in katana form and gouged a small hole in the bark. "Hm. The sap isn't coming very quickly."

Yang repressed a laugh and decided to be productive. "Hey, anyone care to help me open a tree? Gauntlets aren't the best stabby weapons, if you know what I mean."

Ruby answered with action. She lifted her weapon, but this time not in a combat grip. The girl gently stabbed three more trees, saluting when finished, then held her jar to the last one as the other three did the same with their trees.

"I can stab my _own_ tree, thank you very much," Weiss scolded. The sap was _so_ slow. There was barely enough to make a constant stream run into the heiress's jar, it was just barely tinted purple, and it was quite runny( 9). "Guys? I don't know if this is right."

"Yeah, it looks more like water than syrup," the brawler agreed. "I thought it was supposed to be thick, sweet, sticky, and purple."

"Maybe it just needs to be boiled down," the scythe user suggested.

"No, that's not it," informed Blake. "I've been to Forever Fall before(10), and decided to try some of the sap. It's supposed to be much darker. I thought these trees might be good enough, but I know there are older ones."

"Where?" chirped Ruby.

"I don't know for sure. I didn't come by the same way. We need to keep going, though."

Weiss dumped out the small amount of weak sap from her jar and followed her teammates farther into the forest. Sure enough, the trees spread out even more, and after a few minutes of walking, many of the trees were almost two meters in diameter and had large knots in their trunks.

"Well, I'm sure _these_ ones will work," the heiress announced. Without waiting for confirmation, she stabbed a tree with Myrtenaster. Deep purple sap immediately bubbled out of the wound and Weiss hurriedly shoved her jar under the hole to avoid getting any on the outside of the jar or her hand. Although the sap was thicker, there was so much more of it that her jar filled in only a few minutes.

During that time, Team JNPR – minus Jaune – stumbled upon the same area and joined in the harvest. Pyrrha was completely silent, but Nora was as talkative as ever, gushing over how delicious the sap was supposed to be.

Unfortunately, when the time came for Weiss to pull her jar away, a bit of the fluid got on the heiress's fingers. There weren't any appropriate cloths around on which to wipe the stuff, so she sighed and decided to just lick it off.

The sap was incredibly pure and sweet; it probably _didn't_ need any refinement like Ruby had suggested earlier. However, it was also incredibly sticky. It took several minutes to get most of the syrup off, but she was left with residue under her fingernails.

The other members of her team were experiencing similar things with the sap, although it looked like the rest had only got it on their hands, not in their fingertips. Of course they'd be the lucky ones. Weiss remorsefully continued suckling her left fingers(13).

"Having fun, Weiss?" Yang commented.

"Of course not! This stupid syrup infuriates me! It's delicious, but it's _so_ troublesome. I'll have to survive having this grime under my fingernails for another couple _hours_..."

"...Or you could let an _expert_ handle it."

"Back off!"

"Jeesh, fine. Can't you or Blake be fun once in a while?"

"I _am_ fun!"

The blonde sighed and decided to just drop the subject and drink a little bit more syrup. Her frown rapidly turned upside-down.

Nora had the least self-control out of any person Weiss had ever met. She was currently taking filled jars from Ren, chugging their contents, and handing them back. How did she even have enough room in her stomach for all of that...?

"Did you guys hear that?" Ruby suddenly asked.

Weiss focused on listening and heard an animal – or Grimm – roaring somewhere fairly nearby. To confirm the latter case, Sky, Dove, and Russel ran by, yelling, "Ursa! Ursa!"

Yang stopped Russel and held him up by the shirt. "What? Where?"

"Back there!" he replied, pointing in the direction from which he came. "It's got Cardin!"

"Jaune!" exclaimed Pyrrha. _That's right, Jaune was with Team CRDL._

Ruby put on her metaphorical leader hat: "Yang! You and Blake go get Professor Goodwitch."

Russel ran off toward his teammates, with Yang and Blake following closely behind.

"You two, go with them!" Pyrrha added, addressing _her_ teammates. "There could be more."

Weiss, Ruby, and Pyrrha drew their weapons and headed in the direction CRDL came from. They ascended a one meter tall cliff, headed past a couple rows of trees, and were confronted with the sight of Cardin crawling across the ground with a larger-than-normal ursa trailing close behind.

"Crap, crap, crap!" the bully fearfully yelled.

"Oh no..." said Pyrrha.

Jaune was behind the two combatants, but headed toward his three companions once he spotted them.

Cardin didn't have such an easy route of escape. The ursa caught up to him and clawed at the downed boy...

But Jaune decided to step in and block the attack with his shield.

 _What?! Why would you help the imbecile who keeps starting so many problems? … Well I suppose we're obligated to not let anyone die._ Weiss raised her rapier to charge at the ursa, but Pyrrha stopped her with a, "Wait!" so the heiress lowered her weapon.

The blonde boy pushed the ursa's paw away and got in a slash across its chest. The beast stumbled back a bit. _Maybe he isn't_ as _useless as I thought._ It quickly caught its balance and punched toward Jaune, but the boy once again pulled through, rolling out of the way. Jaune jumped over a horizontal swipe as well, but that's when his beginner's luck ran out. The ursa punched the boy as he descended from his jump, launching him across the clearing.

Now Jaune was back in his usual state of combat: Pitiful. The knight-wannabe recklessly sprinted back toward his opponent and went for a leaping slash, but was easily picked out of the air by his huge opponent. He skidded across the bed of leaves and ended up laying on his stomach.

"You sure?" Weiss asked Pyrrha.

"Just give him a chance," persuaded the redhead.

Jaune rose and once again sprinted at his foe, but this time he kept his feet firmly on the ground. The ursa's paw descended as Jaune's blade ascended toward its neck, but there was no way the sword would get there first...

...Until Pyrrha raised a hand and caused Jaune's shield to come up to deflect the attack. After recollecting from the impact, the boy continued his slash, beheading the beast. The body crumpled to the forest floor and slowly began to dissolve into the air, but a few parts gave Jaune his shower of glory.

"Uh... What?" Ruby was dumbfounded.

"Yeah... How did you...?" Weiss added.

"Well," the redhead explained, "Ruby has her speed; you have your glyphs. My Semblance is polarity."

"Ah, you can control _poles_ ," Ruby excitedly whispered to herself.

"No, you dunce! It means she has control over magnetism." _Duh. What did they_ teach _you at Signal?_

"Magnets are cool, too..."

Pyrrha turned to walk back to the meeting area.

"Wait," said Weiss. "Where are you going?"

"Yeah; we gotta tell them what happened," the pseudo-redhead added.

"We could..." said Pyrrha, "...or, perhaps we could just keep it our little secret."

Well... Sure. It would probably make Jaune feel a bit better to have the confidence boost from believing it was all him, and it would be a bad idea to feed information to the enemy. The heiress nodded and followed Ruby and Pyrrha back to the sap trees.

"I'm going to text Yang that everything is fine," said Ruby, digging out her Scroll.

As that matter finished, the three arrived back at the forgotten jars. They picked up the containers of sap and headed in the direction of the far-off mountain(14) to get back to where Goodwitch was waiting.

"Oh, there you are," the professor consoled herself. "Jaune and Cardin are on their way, correct?"

"Yes, Professor," Weiss replied politely.

Pyrrha then took the initiative to tell Goodwitch what had happened – other than her own aid in resolving the situation – while Weiss decided to continue in her attempt to clean the undersides of her fingernails. It wasn't helping much, but the heiress decided that it was beneficial for her to at least _think_ she was making progress, so she continued.

Soon enough, Jaune walked into the clearing with a smile on his face. Cardin, who was trailing behind Jaune, had a slight scowl and a heap of five sap jars.

"Hello, Professor Goodwitch. Fine day, isn't it?" Jaune greeted suavely.

"Yes, indeed," she replied. "Well done, young man, but I do hope that you will be able to maintain this level of success from now on."

Jaune chuckled nervously. "I'm not so sure. To be honest, I kinda got lucky..."

Pyrrha cleared her throat. "Jaune will do just fine." She grabbed Jaune by the shoulders to turn him toward herself and whispered, "I'll make sure of it."

The boy in question raised wide, thankful eyes up from the ground toward his friend's face, but acknowledged the need for secrecy and only mouthed a simple, "Thank you."

"Well, this is everyone," the assistant headmaster announced as a couple more students trickled in. "I believe we're all set to return to Beacon. Let's get back to the airship."

* * *

"Jaune, I think we should tell everyone," Pyrrha announced from her spot at the lunch table.

"W-well..."

Yang nudged Weiss in the ribs then whispered in her ear: "You think she finally asked him out?"

" _WHAT?!_ "

"Whoa, didn't know you didn't know(15)."

"Didn't know what?" Pyrrha asked, completely oblivious.

"Nothing," the brawler quickly covered. She then turned to whisper to Weiss again. "Seriously, she's all over him. How can you not see that?"

Now was Weiss's turn to elbow Yang in the side. "Please continue, Pyrrha."

"Well, seeing as we're all friends, I think it's important for us to be open about ourselves. Jaune?"

"This is it..." *Elbow.* "Hey!"

"Ahem. Well, uh, I um, am... I wasn't really accepted into Beacon!"

Ruby's mouth formed an "O", Weiss's eyes widened but she refrained from letting her jaw drop, Blake's eyes _may_ have widened a fraction of a millimeter, Yang gasped, Pyrrha smiled, Nora cackled evilly, and Ren smirked slightly.

"I'm glad you had the courage to admit it," said Ren. "I saw the quite false-looking transcripts one day when I had to run a favor for Ozpin."

"I did the entrance tests," confessed Blake, "but I never had any transcripts, either."

"Blake!" Weiss exclaimed. "How could you?"

"Ozpin is a very generous headmaster," she replied. "He doesn't _need_ official papers to judge a person's worth. I had other training."

"Yeah, Ozpin is super caring and cool! He's a bit like Dad!" Ruby agreed. "Jaune, you may have cheated your way in, but remember our talk two days ago? You're a leader now, and you _will_ grow to fill your duties. I believe in you."

"Oh. Sure." "Absolutely." "Uh-huh!" "You'll do fine, Jaune!" "Long live Team JNPR!" "You can do it."

"That brings us to the second point," Pyrrha said.

Jaune sighed and continued speaking. "Thank you guys so much for all your support. I'm happy to have friends like you." _Friends? I don't know if I could call him a friend._ "Um, these last few days, I've been so down because... *Sigh.* Cardin was blackmailing me. He heard about my transcripts and then made me do all sorts of tasks for him. I had to write two essays for him, plus I had to bring him supper twice and even had to gather a box of _rapier wasps_. At the forest yesterday, he wanted me to throw some sap at Pyrrha so the wasps would enact vengeance on her for being a _good person_. That's when I couldn't take it anymore. I knew I had to support my friends, no matter the consequences. Instead, I threw the sap at Cardin, and that's when the ursa came along. The wasps were never used, and are probably cooked in that box by now. But anyway, after the ursa was dead, I made Cardin promise to never come after any of us again. But I couldn't have done it all without Ruby's encouragement. Thank you."

"That's what friends are for!"

"And!" Pyrrha announced. Yang raised an eyebrow in anticipation. "We're going to be the good friends we are by helping Jaune catch up to the rest of us. I'm helping him out with personal lessons" - Yang's re-slumped eyebrows hitched once again - "and if any of you want to help out, we would both appreciate it." Yang's facial expression turned to one of confusion briefly, then to one of disappointment, then to one of enlightenment(11).

"I can help him out with a good battle mentality(12)!" Yang offered.

"No, Yang," Ruby scolded. "That's only _your_ battle mentality. Not everyone can get by by being reckless like you. Your Semblance is special."

"Hey!" the older sister pouted. "My offer stands."

"Well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to show Jaune each of our personal fighting styles," said Blake. "Maybe it'll help him solidify his own."

"I'm in!" shouted Ruby.

Jaune's jaw dropped. "I can't believe that you guys not only still like me, but even want to help out! It means so much to have friends like you, even if we've only known each other for four weeks."

"We should get ice cream in Vale to celebrate!" said Ruby.

Weiss pulled out her Scroll. "We _should_ get to our individual classes. They start in twenty minutes," she corrected.

"Eep!"

* * *

 _I can't believe that I have friends who cheated the system to get into Beacon. Can you believe it? 'No.' Of course you can't. You think just like me. But the scarier part is that I'm almost okay with it. You know... No, you don't know. But I'll tell you. You know, after Father has expected perfection out of me for so long, I've grown to expect it out of everyone else. But really, that doesn't matter. Nothing is perfect. Not me, and certainly not Father. I think Ruby, Yang, and Blake really are my friends. My first real friends. But even Team JNPR is okay, too. For all their faults, it really is nice to have them around. But it sure would be nice if they were all a little more proper once in a while... I know this is not what Father wanted me to learn, but it feels so good to be able to tear away from his lies and restrictions._ He _is the one who is wrong... about many things, but I suppose not all. Well, anyway, I think that's about all your little ears can handle for today. Goodnight, Mr. Fluffschnee._

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

(1) "subjugated or discriminatedagainst": The "against" is added. It's just... useful. "Discriminated" is supposed to have an indirect object, and against is a preposition to make it indirect. Kerry and Miles don't have perfect scripts.

(2) 'Which is how they got to Mother without alerting anyone...': Woohoo. Theories. They will be expanded later, obviously around the time that the White Fang becomes relevant.

(3) This is where canon ends the subject, but may as well theorize. I doubt it'll ever be relevant. It's "the turning point" of the war (Or of the third year... Many turning points?), so I'd guess that the faunus more or less took over for at least a while.

(4) several sectors of Vale and Vacuo: It seems to me that the kingdoms are large, walled city-states, so the most notable divisions would be the "quadrants" mentioned in V2Chp8 when they chose missions. I'm also guessing that most of the relevant fighting is on the largest continent, which houses two of the kingdoms. Makes sense to me.

(5) What the heck is Zep? I baffle myself with the amazing vocabulary.

(6) Professor Peaches... she: No information is given about this professor, only small references to his/her existence. I'd like to assume that she's female, but that is in no way guaranteed. It probably won't matter much to any plot.

(7) Noooooooo I decided to do a picturesque description. I'm sure it's terrible. -My informant says that it's actually good. K.

(8) six days ago: This is Tuesday of their fourth week at Beacon. I figured the field trip should be on a Dueling day so the afternoon would be open.

(9) runny: Low viscosity. It has a consistency more like water than like mud or gel. I thought it was stupid that they had to go "deep inside this forest" for sap when all the trees in the episode looked almost identical, so I justified it by assuming certain trees have better or worse sap.

(10) "I've been to Forever Fall before": In the Black trailer.

(11) Yang's facial expression: She thought there were _suggestive_ personal lessons that were not combat-related, then she was confused because an invitation to include other people is really weird, then she was disappointed because she realized it was just ordinary lessons, then she was enlightened because she had a "good" idea for helping out.

(12) Judging by how Jaune fights the ursa in V2Chp12, he may have actually had some lessons from Yang... I'll assume it happens eventually, but won't attempt to write the details to make it interesting. I just don't feel like it.

(13) The syrup on fingers sub-scene was inspired by Weiss staring at her fingernails in the "yuck" orientation (palm up) when it shows the teams collecting sap.

(14) mountain: The mountain was behind them when they entered the forest. May as well use that as a navigation tool.

(15) Earlier in the chapter, Weiss noted that Pyrrha seemed to like Jaune. That was the regular like, not Nora's like-like. Pyrrha doesn't hate him.

 **Chapter Synopsis:** Covers Jaunedice and Forever Fall sections, but of course from Weiss's point of view. Weiss grows as a person.

 **Changes Synopsis:** Only two weeks into the semester instead of whenever it is in canon. It feels like people should've cared a bit more about the bullying. There are other details filled in as well, like "WHAT ABOUT THE RAPIER WASPS?" and other forms of aftermath. (Every time I write "aftermath" now, I want to write "aftermathematics"! Must refuse! Can't wear it out!)

 **Next update:** Should certainly be much quicker than this one was. The load is looking light. Unfortunately, all the feels planned will have to wait, because I'm planning on having two more chapters _before_ "Hours". It's like a bad cliffhanger... But you get fun like that which was largely present in the last few chapters. EDIT: Because of a change in content plans, there's only one chapter before "Hours". Result: 6 days.


	6. Oumsday

Chapter 6 – Oumsday

 **Author's Note:**

Useless statistics: Chapter finished November 16, 2015. Published November 17, 2015. Total word count: 15950. Body word count: 12926 (81%). Writing Time: 31h33m (including ~3h planning for later chapters, some writings wasted until a later chapter, 1h35m mapmaking, 43m changing old chapters to conform, and 1h35m editing). Chapter Rating: T

 **IMPORTANT NOTE:** There is an Author's Note at the end of the chapter that allows reader interaction. It's not you guys writing any of the story, and it's not an OC request or a request for plot or fluff ideas (although those can always be considered, not that they're too terribly desired). It's veto power.

The next Chapter in Volume 1 is The Stray, but this is not that. I wanted to give a little bit more content before skipping all the way ahead to the end of the semester. (I think Volume 1 ends toward the end of the semester, otherwise Blake being preoccupied with Torchwick and the White Fang would not have been a _new_ thing at the beginning of the second semester.) This way we get some more interactions and development.

Craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap. This was going to be a Halloween chapter, and it was going to be amazing with all the foreshadowing and setups, but then V3Chp3 came along and said it was FALL in the SECOND SEMESTER. Have to rearrange headcanon... First semester is now (mid) March, April, May, June, (mid) July, then there's a short break (Volume 2 seems to start fairly shortly after Volume 1), then the second semester is August, September, October, November, and then a longer break. There will still be a Halloween chapter, mostly transferred from what I had here originally, but darn, that hurts. One little sentence screwed me over. Well, changing it up... In other news, **because of how much time is covered in this chapter** , I won't need another filler. **The next chapter is "Hours"**.

There happens to be some VERY critical history defined in this chapter. Here be the first feels. (I don't think it would work very well to skip any of the story anyway, since there are often references to previous events, but this is especially important.)

* * *

School was going as well as could be reasonably hoped. Everyone's grades were improving, even Nora's, Jaune's, and Weiss's _(There's always room to improve)_. Teams RWBY and JNPR had taken to studying in the library for the most part so that everyone could share tips, fill in missing notes, or quiz one another. Classes, although certainly instructional, had become a well-defined routine, and now daily life was chiefly characterized by extracurricular activities. However, Hunter Academies did not encourage the usual extracurriculars like clubs and sports; because of the students' dedication to their vocations, most interactions were purely social or combative in nature. A few times each week, RWBY went into the Emerald Forest to fight Grimm or sparred and trained individually at the practice arenas. Despite how _often_ the students fought, it was rarely for excessively long periods of time, so there were plenty of opportunities to do academic work and just hang out.

This dreary Thursday in May(1) was one of those more relaxed days. Ruby, Yang, Weiss, Blake, Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren were currently sitting at two adjoined tables in the library.

"Okay," said Weiss, clearing her throat. "What is the name of the double snake Grimm?"

Nora was sleeping on an open textbook, but six other hands shot up. Ruby's was unsurprisingly the fastest. "Yes?"

"Ooh, that one is easy!" she jested. "King Taijitu. We talked about those _weeks_ ago. Move on to something harder."

"Fine. Yes, that was correct. Plus one: Now Ruby is at ten points. Pyrrha has seven, Yang has six, Blake has five, Jaune and Ren(2) have three each, and Nora..." Nora had been sleeping for the entire quiz game. "Next question: Where do Grimm come from?"

While Ruby pondered, Jaune managed raise his hand first. "That question isn't fair! Nobody knows that. They just appear out of the wilderness, and nobody has ever seen one being born or suddenly coming out of thin air."

"Well, you're mostly correct," Weiss conceded. "I'll give you a point for that. But what _is_ known about their numbers?"

Ruby was the quickest. "The Grimm are not stars in the sky. They can be counted. They can be fought. One day, _we_ will be the ones covering all of Remnant and _they_ will be left with a handful of remote locations. Then Remnant will be safe and we will all live happily ever after."

"Um, Rubes?" said Yang. "That's nice and all, but that won't be anytime soon. And we can't really count _all_ of them when they're basically an unlimited resource."

"Yeah," Weiss added with disappointment plastered across her face. "Anyone else? Think more about us."

Ren sighed and raised his hand. "More Grimm appear when there are more depressed, angry, jealous, selfish, or hateful people in an area."

"Two points for Ren," the heiress dryly commented. "Okay: What are a boarbatusk's sensory organs?"

This time, Yang was first. "They have four eyes, and they hear with their ears and taste with their mouth, and they can feel stuff like any other creature, but the _tusks_ are what they use to smell."

"I'm surprised you knew that," said Weiss. "Two points."

"You just happen to know these things when you're amazing."

The heiress completely ignored that comment and continued with the quiz. "I suppose this is a good one to ask about next. Tell me about the exotic worm Grimm."

"Hey, that's tomorrow's lecture!" Ruby complained.

"But," said Weiss, "if you did your readings like you were supposed to, you would already know more about them. I won't always hold your hand for every assignment."

"Aw, Weiss; come on..."

Pyrrha answered the question. "It's called a terraphim(3). It is usually about two meters long and slithers with the back half of its body while holding the front half up. It has eyes almost everywhere. They live underground, of course, and make small tunnels for themselves. They are slow and not all that dangerous except when they come in large swarms and trap people in confined spaces."

" _Someone_ has been doing their readings. Three points. Now, true or false (with an explanation, of course): Every Grimm of a subspecies is the same."

Jaune answered: "False. I killed an ursa major in Forever Fall, but most are smaller. Grimm can grow just like animals, and can supposedly change species too(4)."

"Yes – one point. Now I'm going to describe a Grimm and you have to name it. It has two legs, a compact body and head with no neck, and a tail. They run, jump, headbutt, and bite."

This time, Blake decided to answer. "It's a creep."

"Yep. One point. I think this will be the last one for now: Describe the digging Grimm."

Ruby had to think for a while, leaving Yang, the next-fastest, to answer the question. "They're called talpurts(5). They're basically moles which are typically hip-height, and they use their tentacle-y mouths and their digging claws to attack. Talpurts don't have much armor; they rely on their environment. Hmm... What else...? Oh yeah, they're not as good-looking as I am. I think that about does it."

"Yes, that's correct. Two points for Yang. And the final scores..." Weiss added up each person's point total on a scrap piece of paper. "Are... Pyrrha is the winner, with ten points, Yang and Ruby both had nine points, Blake ended up with six points, and both Jaune and Ren got five points. Well done, Pyrrha."

"I do my best," she dismissed.

"I thought I had ten points!" Ruby complained.

"You lost one for that rubbish answer."

"No fair!"

"It's quite fair."

"Anyway!" interrupted Yang. "What's next?" she asked, punching one fist into the other palm.

"Did you know that in just one month, it'll be Oumsday?" said Ruby. "We need to plan!"

 _Doomsday?_ "Did you just say doomsday?"

"*GASP!* You don't know what Oumsday is?"

"Why would someone celebrate doomsday? That is, assuming it even exists."

"Not doom! Oum! Do they not have it in Atlas? You're so deprived!"

"No, we don't have such foolish special days. A day is a day. Why would any particular day be treated differently from the rest?"

"But June twenty-second is the birthday of our _creator_ , Monty Oum! How could you disrespect that?!"

"Sure, everyone knows the name, but _please_. Everyone knows that those are just fairy tales made up a long time ago. It's just a common expletive."

"MONTY OUM IS MY HERO!" shouted Nora. In the library. Weiss cringed(6).

"Pardon me, RWBY and JNPR," a smooth female voice said, approaching their tables, "but many of us are trying to study here. We would all appreciate it if you tried to keep the noise level down."

Weiss remembered the girl, but Yang was the first to address her. "Oh, hey, Alevyí(7). How's it going? Get any good dates lately?"

"I don't need to _get_ good dates, Miss Xiao Long. Gyudel is good to me. Last week, we went to an archery range, and he's actually improved quite a bit. It was rather enjoyable."

"That sounds great!"

"...Wait a second. You're trying to trick me into _joining_ your distractions. I have things to do, so adieu. I hope I won't need to come by here again( 8)."

The brawler sighed in defeat as the archer walked away.

"I think I might be able to be a little quieter," Nora whispered, earning her a pat on the back from Ren.

"Oumsday festivities are all about honoring creativity," Jaune explained. "There's a big parade with floats, and there are contests for stories and videos and all types of stuff. It's great!"

"I should be going," Blake suddenly announced. She picked up her reading book and her notebooks and walked out of the building.

"What's up with her?" asked Nora.

Ruby stood up. "Yang, let's go plan our Oumsday weekend. We'll ask around the admin tower for any special events. Then we'll brainstorm a project with the rest of the team."

"You got it!"

"Hey!" said Weiss. "What if I don't want to participate in this rubbish? Don't _I_ get a say?"

"You get a say in our project, Weissy," said Yang. "But I wouldn't trust a _newbie_ to make our itinerary."

"Eye tan you very?" asked Ruby. "What?"

"Itinerary, Ruby. A time schedule."

"Oh yeah, that! I knew that! Bye, guys, we've got a _i-ten-you-wary_ to plan!"

With the rest of her team gone, Weiss decided she may as well leave, too. There wasn't much left to study with Pyrrha, and she certainly didn't have any reason to interact with the other three. "I think I'll go back to the room," the heiress announced as she stood and pushed in her chair. "It was good studying with you guys."

"See ya later, Weiss!" "Monty... Lord of pancakes..." "Goodbye!" "Later."

 _Oh. Great._ Ruby had left her notebooks and nobody had bothered to take the shared copy of 'Grimm: Know Your Prey, 21st edition'. At least Yang hadn't bothered to bring any notebooks. Weiss sighed and reluctantly accepted her fate as a pack mule.

The library was a tall, long building with an arched ceiling located just northeast of the center of campus. Dozens of rows of bookshelves ran perpendicular to the length of the building, but a large central aisle was left open, which was partially occupied by long bench tables. The front of the library had a desk that contained a book return bin hidden under the table plus a terminal with a scanner for the librarian to check out books. However, Weiss was currently on the balcony, which directly overlaid the bookshelves underneath. It contained its own sets of shorter bookshelves, but there were two tables between each pair of shelves; it was more of a group project area than an individual study area. The heiress walked to the front of the balcony level without a glance to either direction, then descended the staircase to the entry room. There was another staircase that went to the basement, as well as another set of staircases on the opposite side of the building's long axis, with a wide staircase in the center that ascended to the main level of the library, but she instead turned right and exited through the large wooden doors that led out of the structure.

The wind immediately blew Weiss's ponytail in her face and caused her to stagger under the extra weight of the textbook and heap of notebooks. It certainly looked like it would rain later that evening. She hurried across the cobblestone walkway leading under the skywalk between the amphitheater on her left and the Beacon Tower to her right and approached the northwest gardens. Not many people were out today. The heiress didn't blame them; she'd rather not be outside right now, either. Weiss made her way past rows of usually neat bushes and trees that were now violently whipping in the wind. The young flowers were laying flat all around as well. Even the lecture halls she passed didn't look particularly happy about all the wind as they groaned and creaked under the strain.

Soon enough, the white-haired girl reached a bench at the edge of the walkway, currently occupied by a single student. Once Weiss cleared some hair out of her face, she recognized the black hair. "Blake? Why are you out here?"

"Don't mind me."

"It looks like it's going to rain. If I were you(9), I'd get inside, but feel free to get rained on."

The other girl gave an amused chuckle. "I wasn't planning on staying here. I don't like sitting in the rain all that much. I just needed a bit of time to think."

"About what?"

"Oumsday, of course. I never had a chance to participate before, but I've heard plenty of bad things about it. Sometimes people get a little too crazy about their festivities."

"You don't have to go to their crazy events. I'm certainly not planning on wasting my time like that."

"Neither am I, but that probably isn't an option," the black-haired girl replied. "It's just..." She stared glassy-eyed at nothing in general.

"What's just-?"

"Nothing. I remember a situation like this from before. Two situations, actually, in different ways. One experience with Oumsday, and one situation involving this same bench. ...Although I'm usually the one to run away."

Weiss shifted the books around in her arms a bit. "What do you mean?"

"Never mind(10)." Blake got up from the bench and briskly walked in the direction of the dorms.

 _O...kay. Whatever. She's just running away from me._ After a few moments of confusion, Weiss, too, headed back to the dorm: Through the garden, in the doors, up the elevator, and into Room lights were off, so Weiss flipped them on to see that Blake was reading on her bed. Typical.

"Don't you need a little light to read?" she asked.

All the heiress got was the silent treatment and the flipping of a page, so she carefully set the books down on her desk and organized them, placing Ruby's notebooks on her desk and sorting her own notebooks.

 _Now what?_ Weiss pensively ran a hand through her hair, but when it met resistance, her mind was made up. _Curse you, wind!_ The heiress retrieved her favorite hairbrush – white, with the SDC logo on the back – from the bathroom and attempted to detangle her usually-tidy snow-white hair.

Basically all the studying was done... She certainly didn't want to waste any time thinking about the stupid Oumsday... Going to Vale would be a bad idea with this weather... (She undid a particularly large knot.) Even going to the training arenas didn't seem like such a great idea... Blake was here, but clearly didn't want to do anything... Ruby and Yang were off plotting like evil masterminds... Those two were so close to each other. If only Weiss had such a great companion. A good friend, like a sister. ...Winter.

Winter was certainly her biological sister and Weiss adored... well, everything about her, but they weren't the same kind of close sisters that Ruby and Yang were. Her older sibling mostly just saw Weiss as a pest. Actually, that wasn't completely true. As young children they got along really well. Although they didn't have much time to themselves once Father deemed them old enough to start their educations, they still spent free moments together quite peaceably. And of course, when Mother passed, everyone was mad at everyone else for a while. Relations _were_ going back to normal, but the _real_ division wasn't long after the murder: When Winter turned seventeen and Weiss was thirteen, The Thing happened that drove the sisters apart with hardly any chance of things ever getting better. No, it wasn't a sudden hatred or incompatibility; it was a distinct revelation and an ensuing decision which sparked _jealousy_. Father had declared Weiss as the heiress the first day of her sister's adulthood( 11).

"Schnee Dust Company" was just a formal, politically correct, recently added name for the company, but behind all the modern names it was truly an _empire_. The SDC was founded as far back in history as anyone knew about, when Dust was first discovered, although the details were not shared with the public. A person – man or woman, that detail was lost – with the last name Schnee was one of the first to refine and mix Dust, using it as an energy propellant rather than simply a magical powder to fry Grimm. Others had made similar discoveries, but the first known Schnee and his or her descendants were always a step ahead of the competition. Even now, the SDC, which was formally named and "founded" by Weiss's grandfather, was the most powerful Dust company in the world, and it was still in the family. A direct lineage from the first Schnee.

Therein lay the problem. Near the age of seventeen, "they" were fairly certain that Winter had primary amenorrhea – she had never had a period. Weiss was in the normal boat on this subject, and Mother had apparently started reasonably early as well, which caused quite the worries. The condition was clinically confirmed a few days before Winter's birthday, and to this day, she was still completely infertile. Since Winter was unable to continue the lineage, she was disqualified from inheriting the company. But the older sister had always done much better than Weiss at almost everything – age-adjusted, of course. She had always been the better option until she was completely screwed over by that single family rule and one irreparable birth defect.

Father wouldn't remarry – it was frowned upon, although not outright prohibited, by the Schnee Family Code, and the media would raise too many questions if he started producing children after such a long break – and Whitley was far worse than either of the other Schnee progeny, so Weiss was the only option. The younger sister had never considered being the next "queen" (publicly referred to as CEO) of the company before that day, but at that moment the gift had been unceremoniously tossed into her lap. Her fate was sealed. The last threads of normality in interactions between the family members were instantly severed. Winter was bitter and no longer wanted anything to do with her sister. She sold her soul to Atlas's military several days after her birthday, asserting that she would carve out her own name in the history books, but Weiss suspected that it was really an attempt to honorably throw her now-meaningless life down the drain. However, both the spoken and unspoken plans crumbled rather swiftly. She quickly rose up the ranks and was now co-head of everything Dust-related: Research of new combinations, applications, and devices; training of soldiers in relevant Dust technologies; and collaborating with other governments and companies to regulate Dust weaponry and to acquire more useful ideas. Her continued existence on the planet was quite ensured since it was extremely unlikely that she would ever be on any front lines – the attempt at taking her life had failed. And the spoken plan was completely decimated as well. It was almost as if she had never truly left the company. Although Winter traveled all over the world, the Atlas military's primary partner was the Schnee Dust Company, so she ended up collaborating on many of the same research projects. _And_ she was still known as an iconic Schnee to the media despite Mr. Schnee's true intentions. But even though she was essentially the queen of Dust, she would never be queen of the company.

Father had been reluctant to put down his eldest daughter, but he had no choice. He still interacted with her on at least a weekly basis for research purposes and still respected her, but now only as an underling rather than a future replacement. She was now just another random tool in the box, not the carefully engineered and refined next-generation tool that would eventually make his tool self obsolete. On the flip side, he now had to groom his less worthy younger daughter into that ideal tool, the next ruler of his dynasty. He _hated_ her. It was bearable when she was younger, but once the decision of her fate was sealed, his hatred clearly rose to the surface because of the increased interaction time between the two. She constantly performed worse than Winter had on similar tests at the same age, and was socially nowhere near the same as Winter. Still better than Whitley, but still not _good_. She wasn't as formal and charismatic as she ought to be. Weiss herself knew she was outstanding at everything she did, but it was never enough. It was never Winter-level. Weiss had emotions and aspirations, and those were absolutely not welcome. The Schnee CEO was supposedly meant to be one hundred and one percent dedicated to the company and make every single decision rationally, not emotionally, with only any regard to the company's well-being. The heiress honestly wondered how her father had ever withstood draining out his entire soul like that, and was especially concerned since it seemed she would be forced to do the same...

On Weiss's side of things, she certainly felt very unworthy of her position. But she also _wanted_ other things. She didn't just want to avoid being head of the SDC, not that that was a vague possibility – she didn't really mind the concept – but there were plenty of things she _did_ want to do with her life other than calling the shots behind some office desk. Research. Government. Fighting for something meaningful. The last of those was why she had decided to come to Beacon under the pretense of learning "life skills". Weiss was truly compassionate on the inside, but the trait was almost always completely obscured by her conditioned frosty exterior. She couldn't ruin her family's reputation by suddenly going soft on anyone or anything. But she did go soft on Winter. The heiress felt extreme pity and guilt for her elder sibling, yet there was nothing she could do other than offer empty words; words that were always ignored and promptly thrown in the nearest waste receptacle. But Weiss didn't only look down on her sister; she looked up to Winter as well. _Winter_ was better at business. _Winter_ was better at combat. _Winter_ was better at science. _Winter_ was better with people. _Winter_ was better-disciplined. _Winter_ was everything the heiress should have been, other than a mother. Winter had always been an inspiration to Weiss, but the elder sibling had nothing to show for her amazing skills. Well, she was important in the military and in the SDC, but not important enough. She could never reach the only goal that truly mattered to her, and Weiss was truly sorry for that. If only any bit of these problems could ever be fixed... If only she could have her sister back – the _real_ sister, who actually cared about Weiss and enjoyed her company, the girl who was happy with her family and her future.

In the present, Weiss realized that her brush had stopped a long time ago and that wet streaks were running down her cheeks. _I have to pull myself together. I know things can work out._ She quickly glanced around and was relieved to see that Blake's eyes were still firmly glued to her book, and Ruby and Yang had not yet returned. _There's something I need to do._

The heiress briefly checked her hair, deciding that it was good enough for now. She put away the brush and retrieved a clean sheet of paper and a pencil.

 _It would be meaningless to send a text or an email. She could never respect the action if it wasn't done_ right _. By hand. No typing. Just real paper and real pencil_ (12) _._

Dear Winter,

I hope you actually read this instead of throwing it out. This is your sister Weiss writing. I know things have been difficult between us for a long time, but I will always remember when we were kids. I hope that some day we'll be able to forgive one another so it can be like that again.

I know you don't want my opinions or my apologies, so I'll try to keep it brief. I just want to share how things have been for me. Well, you know that I'm at Beacon now. If you didn't figure it out on your own, I didn't decide to come here to "learn discipline" or whatever Father said to rationalize the decision for himself. I came here to hopefully have four years of freedom before I have to be the heiress again. ...It should have been you. I've probably told you that thousands of times, but I really mean it.

The thing is, I'm not Father. I'm not you, either, and you're not me. But I've still looked up to you every day of my life. I wish I could just be like you. That would make everything so much better. But I can't. I will do my absolute best to hopefully run the company how you'd want it; how Father would want it; but it clearly will never be the same. I don't know if I should trust you, but I want to. I already wrote all of this and it's staying. Just please don't tell Father. And hide it somewhere Whitley won't find it.

This school is a mess. The food is clearly not like at home. The people are almost all wild and crazy, and there are even a few I suspect could be medically declared as psychopaths. All the systems are chaotic, like for initiation, we were _randomly_ assigned teams loosely based on our results and cooperation. And within the first twenty-four hours in my dorm room, the people above us smashed a hole in the ceiling. But you know what? It feels alive. I don't know how I can possibly like it here with all the things that annoy me so much, but I've managed to grow to like this place.

We have teams of four people. My first teammate is Ruby Rose. Somehow, she got to be the leader of the team. That sucks for me, but I suppose it's useful to learn what it's like when I'm not in charge. Father would probably just be disappointed, but I really do think that the best leader should know what it's like to be a follower. Ruby also somehow weaseled her way into the school two years early, but she doesn't even seem like she's behind. Well, not in academics or combat, at least. She _is_ behind in maturity. I can't even count how many stupid things she almost does every single day; she's the world's worst idea maker, and is obsessed with having way too much fun. But things still work out fairly well. We're actually one of the best teams in the grade – not that I'd expect any less with a Schnee on the team!

Then there's Ruby's sister, or rather, half-sister. Her name is Yang Xiao Long. I think they said they had different mothers because Yang's died or something like that; I don't quite remember. Yang is actually the proper age, two years older than Ruby. She likes fun just as much as her sister, and is also rather crass. But she's also a great fighter, almost as good as me, and is really kindhearted. She's kind of paradoxical in that way: She's usually really kind, yet can also be quite rude and can get really, really angry. I guess she's always at some sort of extreme. But that's usually not bad; it's whatever extreme is best for the situation, mostly.

Weiss had to get out a new piece of paper. The previous one was full.

And my last teammate is Blake Belladonna. I don't know much about her since she's always so quiet. She usually reads a lot and she's good in school. But it's almost like she doesn't exist. The girl doesn't seem to have any aspirations and often wants to be left alone. Any team activities are planned by Ruby and Yang, although I guess I can occasionally fit a word in, but Blake just follows. Even right now, she's just reading in the corner while Yang and Ruby are off devising their next master plan.

But I've actually grown to like these three. They may not be perfect, but there's plenty of good in each of them. I think that's important for me to learn, even if Father believes there really is such a thing as perfection.

Oh! I just noticed that I forgot to describe my teammates. Ruby is shorter than me- actually, no, without my heels on she's really a little taller. Probably the simplest way to describe her appearance is "cute". She has short black hair with red dyed streaks toward the ends, and she usually wears a black combat dress with red around the edges. Her weapon is a sniper scythe, which doesn't sound like it would be too practical, but because of her Speed Semblance, it actually works out for her to run past enemies and cut them down by dragging the weapon behind her. Yang is fairly tall. She probably thinks she's "sexy" or something like that. She has long blonde hair, which is basically her prized possession – she literally goes berserk if anyone touches it. I don't really agree with the way she dresses: Short black shorts, a yellow undershirt, and a brown jacket that's too small for her, especially with the size of her chest. She actually fights by punching stuff, aided by her shot-gauntlets, which collapse into bracelets. I thought it was a stupid idea at first, but it works well for her. And then Blake. She's not really at either the immature or mature extreme in appearance; she's neutrally pretty. She has black hair, and always wears a bow. It must be an addiction or something. It looked really out of place and childish when I first met her, but whatever. She likes to wear a white shirt with a black vest over it, and black and purple leggings with white shorts. She has a sword that acts as a cleaver with its sheathe on, but it can separate into two swords, too. The main sword can also fold down into a gun, and it's attached to a tether which makes it work like a grappling hook. It doesn't make much sense to me, but I guess it works.

My classes are all going really well, of course. I have all 'A's. There's Grimm Studies (the professor gets sidetracked very often with his stories, though), World History (the professor talks way too quickly, and sometimes supports faunus rights...), Dueling (practicing against other students; I almost always win; the assistant headmaster teaches it, and she's strict, which is quite refreshing), and then my personal classes, Swordplay and Intermediate Applications of Dust in Combat, which are exactly how they sound. Everything is pretty easy, and I'm at the top of the rankings.

I think that's about it. Hopefully we'll be able to talk again.

Miss you,

Weiss

 _Miss her, indeed. In more ways than the obvious._ The heiress took a deep breath and read over the letter again. It wasn't perfect... but it was true. It was her writing. She set down her pencil and folded the two pieces of paper in thirds. Now all that was left was to package the papers in an envelope and mail it... in the administrative tower. That would have to wait until tomorrow.

Now... There was nothing to do. Weiss simply sat on her bed and stared out the window until she lost track of time.

She was brought back to full consciousness by the buzzing of her Scroll. Ruby had just sent a text message: _"done planing, meat us 4 food, cya l8r"_. After a few seconds of trying to decipher the foreign code before her and fuming at the grammatical and spelling errors, the heiress got up from her bed.

"Blake," she said. It didn't quite come out right; she cleared her throat. How long had she been sitting there? "Blake, Ruby and Yang are going to the dining hall right now, so we should probably head down as well."

She didn't get a verbal response, but did get the other girl to close her book and stand up.

* * *

"Okay!" Ruby announced through a mouthful of multicolored cake. "Here's the plan: Friday evening, there's a big parade in Vale. We'll go to that, and get as much candy as possible!"

"Where exactly does this candy come from?" Weiss asked accusingly.

"They throw it out to the spectators, of course. Free candy!"

"I'm not sure about you, but _I_ don't want to pick sugar off the streets."

Ruby completely ignored the complaint and continued: "After the parade, there are a bunch of creativity expos, and there's even one for students, held in the amphitheater right here at Beacon! It lasts from Friday night all the way until the middle of Sunday. We can go check out all the cool things, but we're going to enter a creation, too. It'll be the best one ever!"

"So, _I_ was thinking," said Yang, "that it _might_ be cool to have something that relates to our training. Like, you know, it would be pretty sweet to make an _animatronic ursa_ that could be used as a _training dummy_."

"That sounds incredibly dangerous, _and_ incredibly difficult to make."

"Atlas's military has a bunch of robots in it, right?" asked Ruby.

"Yes-"

"And you come from Atlas," added Yang.

"Yes, but-"

"I'm sure you've taken some classes about robotics, right?" Ruby filled in.

"That's a terrible assumption to make."

"Ha! You didn't deny it!" the pseudo-redhead noticed. "This is going to be the coolest robot ever!"

"It was barely any exposure at all! My sister would know more, though."

"You have a sister?" Yang asked.

"She doesn't exactly have all the time in the world to talk to me. It wouldn't work."

"That's so sad I couldn't imagine what it would be like without Yang she's like my bestest friend ever I love her so much why can't you just live together eat together sleep together be the bestest besties you deserve _all_ her time I'm going to kill her to make her be your friend that's just not fair-"

"I _refuse_ to be a part of such a foolish project."

" _Ruby_ 's pretty good with machinery, too, y'know," Yang said.

"Yeah I made Crescent Rose myself I know a lot about robots because they're like really cool and they're just like weapons I read about weapons all the time robots too and they're just so cool did I mention robots are the best-"

"Ruby is trying to say that she can help out," translated Yang. "She'll probably actually do most of it, but it _would_ be nice to work on this as a team."

"I will _not_ be involved."

Weiss picked up her tray and headed for the dish return, ignoring pleas of, "Weiss! Where are you going?" and, "No, don't leave us!" She thought the air around her felt a little colder than usual, but it was probably just her imagination. The heiress headed out the door...

...And directly into a torrential downpour. Of _course_ it decided to start raining. She wanted to run back inside, but that wouldn't help anything; her clothes were already soaked, and certainly would not dry out for quite a while in the cafeteria. Plus she would _still_ be stranded with her devious teammates in an uncomfortable room. Weiss bit the Dust cartridge( 13) and made a dash for the dorms.

Even though it was only the next building over to the north, the run felt like an eternity. Every raindrop seemed to have a homing device that aimed for particularly annoying locations, such as her recently fixed hair, her face, and all the small bits of exposed skin.

When she finally made it to the dormitory, Sky Lark, the blue-haired dunce from Team IDIOT(14), was right there in the front lobby, eagerly _guffawing_ at her. That was certainly the best term for the despicable action. It wasn't a laugh, or a chuckle, or a sneer, or a snicker, and most certainly was not a giggle. It was a guffaw. The most guffaw-ish guffaw she'd ever heard. Aimed at _her_. If she were Yang, she'd punch him through a wall... so instead, Weiss settled for giving the _boy_ the frostiest glare she could muster. Hopefully the cold seeping into her bones from the rain was being channeled into the action...

The kid seized up like he was having a seizure, so she figured she'd done something right. How relieving. The slushy heiress splashed over to the nearest elevator in as dignified a manner as possible and jabbed the up arrow until the elevator arrived. Apparently it had come from the basement, because when Weiss went to push the "4" button, she found it and all the other buttons already pressed. Some idiot apparently thought it would be funny to jab all the buttons and then hop back out before it closed. Couldn't she ever just have a normal journey from point A to point B(15)?

So Weiss endured two extra stops on her ascent(16). Fortunately, all that happened was a prolongation of her trip; nobody else got on the elevator or even walked by. The doors finally opened to floor four, allowing the sleet queen to stomp over to her room. She slammed the door behind her and decided, with no deliberation whatsoever, to take a shower.

* * *

The rest of Thursday had been rather relaxing. Everyone else also took a shower and then they played a bit of Grimm Eclipse. Friday came and went as well. Sure enough, Professor Port gave a lecture on terraphim, and he apparently didn't have much experience with them so the class ended early because of the dearth of stories. World History contained some nonsense about Vacuo – they'd moved onto the kingdoms by now – which apparently had a lot of faunus and sand. They weren't as big on Dust consumption as the other three kingdoms, so it basically wasn't of any concern to Weiss. Then was Swordplay, in which they worked on disarms, and Intermediate Applications of Dust in Combat, where Weiss got some practice with fire Dust, her least favorite element. They'd mixed it up the rest of the day, studying a bit, playing a bit of Grimm Eclipse, and hanging out with Team JNPR for a while, and Weiss had mailed her letter.

But now it was officially the weekend, and that meant total Rose/Xiao Long domination of events.

"Gooooooooood morning, Team RWBY!"

Darn. It had been a _long_ time since Ruby last had to wake up Weiss. As she rubbed her eyes, she figured out why she had been awoken. It was Saturday, when the heiress was usually able to get some well-earned beauty sleep, but this wasn't just any Saturday. It was a wide open Saturday in which Ruby and Yang were planning on starting their robot.

"Three more minutes...?"

"Nope!" With no further warning, the covers were ripped off of Weiss's bed.

"Gya-ughluergAAAAAH!" The heiress hastily shoved Mr. Fluffschnee, who had ended up under her left shoulder blade, underneath her pillow, and then attempted to fix her appearance. "I _really_ wish you didn't do that," she scolded.

"Today's a big day, Weiss!"

Once everyone got themselves ready for the day, the team was interrupted by a knock on the door. Once Ruby opened it, Pyrrha strolled into the room. "I'm just here to remind you that this is a cleaning day," she said. "My team has already started."

"Th-thanks, Pyrrha! We'll get right on it!" Once the redhead left the room, Ruby addressed her team. "Okay, Team RWBY, today is an _even bigger_ day. Let's get this over with as quickly as possible."

A vacuum cleaner, some rags, and cleaning fluids were retrieved from a janitor's closet, and the team got to work. Weiss always got to run the vacuum – there was no way that she would touch the scum in the bathroom. Blake and Yang were stuck with that job. Meanwhile, Ruby was one of the fastest dusters in all of Remnant. The girl zipped around the room with her Semblance, sucking up any lightweight pieces of junk on all the surfaces and then swinging out the window to blow all the junk away. She held onto the open, hinged bit, then jumped back inside and "scrubbed" at the more stuck dust with a feather duster, but only after sneaking a cookie out of Betty.

Weiss finished shortly after Ruby. She returned the vacuum, then Ruby sat her down with a blueprint.

"You do realize that I've never built a robot before, right?"

"We'll figure it out."

* * *

And figure it out they did(17). With the help of some textbooks from the library, Ruby's uncanny knack for mechanical engineering, and access to a weapons shop on campus, the team finished their ursa-bot the weekend before Oumsday. Weiss had done most of the coding and Yang had added most of the aesthetic bits, like the black fake fur and glowing eyes. Blake was essentially Ruby's assistant in building the structural components. And now they were adding the finishing touches.

"Good work, team," said Ruby as she lifted the visor of her welding mask and observed the now-secured final tooth. "Let's get some cookies; I'm starving."

* * *

"Ruby, I _told_ you that I would _not_ go pick candy off of the streets. I'm _not_ going."

"But Weiiiiisssss! You have to! It'll be so much fun! ...I thought we were friends..."

"Oh, pulling the pity card. That won't work. I've already made up my mind, so just leave like you want to."

Ruby gave Weiss the most pitiful, anguished look she'd ever seen, but slowly pivoted and dejectedly shuffled out of the room with heavy feet. "C'mon, Yang..." she mumbled 90% incoherently.

Weiss was frozen to the spot. She had no idea she could cause so much damage; such sadness. Ruby was supposed to be cheerful. She was supposed to give everyone around her an infectious happiness. She was a little bundle of joy. An innocent ray of hope. What had she done?!

But the world was not done tormenting her. Even Blake got up from her bed, shutting her book, and ran out the door after the other two teammates. "Good luck breaking more little kids' hearts," she called behind her. Even the mysterious introverted bookworm of the team had crumbled under Ruby's deadly assault.

The footsteps grew farther and farther away, and the ice queen remembered to breathe. "Holy sh*t. What have I done? All she wanted was a couple hours of my day, but I couldn't even give her that. What was I planning to do anyway? Nothing. I just didn't want to go. She's right. I _am_ a terrible friend." The conversation moved to her brain, where it belonged. _I thought it was enough of an apology to follow her leadership, but the apology she wanted was friendship. Even Professor Ozpin said that I should learn to be "the best person, the best friend" that I can be._

 _Oh my Monty! What am I doing? I have to go after her!_

Weiss remembered how to unglue her feet from the floor and rushed out of the room. To the elevator... Out of the building... Across the gardens... Past the amphitheater and the ballroom... Out the gate... Past the statue... And to the airship docks. The heiress lifted her eyes off of the path in front of her, only to see an airship already taking off.

 _Crap. It's ten minutes between trips, and thirty minutes if I want to go to the center of the commercial district where the parade is... What an appropriate punishment, to have to sit here with nothing to do but think about what I've done._

Several minutes into her misery – she didn't know exactly how long, as she'd forgotten her Scroll in her haste – someone else sat down on the rail next to her at the side of the pathway. "Hey, Weiss," said a familiar, heavily-accented female voice. "You get left behind?"

Velvet.

"Why are _you_ here?"

"S-sorry, I just thought-"

"I don't need you." Weiss crossed her arms.

"But I'm just waiting for the next airship! I didn't mean to offend you!"

"Of course you didn't. Sure."

The rabbit girl got up and moved farther down the rail, but then thought again and crossed to the opposite side. Weiss thought it would be appropriate if the girl were to shout, "Are you happy now?", but it never came. Good; she'd learned her place.

After several more minutes of pondering her friends (her teammates) and her enemies (the faunus, and Team IDIOT), the next airship finally arrived.

Of course, a handful of passengers left the aircraft before Weiss and Velvet were able to board, and it was a while longer before it took off since a few other students trickled in as well. But then they were off to Vale.

She'd seen the view before on the team's numerous trips into Vale, but it was still breathtaking. Beacon disappeared to a tiny dot on a high cliff behind them as they followed the river toward the coast. What started as an indistinct rocky smudge on the horizon turned into a well-defined stone wall, over fifty meters high, encircling tiny buildings. The buildings grew into distinguishable houses, apartment complexes, shops, and business towers, with factories and warehouses off in the distance(18), and her airship landed just inside the walls, along the river, in the southeast of the commercial district.

The parade occupied around a dozen city blocks near the center of North Main Street, which stretched all the way from the easternmost parts of the commercial district to the docks along the ocean. There was similarly a Central Main Street that passed through the residential district until it met the fork in the river that split the city in three, and a South Main Street which ran parallel to North Main, but it was south of the lowest branch of the river. Unfortunately, the city was rather large and she took the not-so-ideal flight to the city, which dumped her in the wrong part of the commercial district. Weiss immediately went underground and got on the free subway; there was no way she wanted to walk over thirty kilometers(19) to get to the parade.

The Dust-powered bullet train got the heiress to her destination – the center of the commercial district – in just under ten minutes(20). The subway station emptied onto a street two blocks south of North Main, which was quite apparent from the ruckus she could already hear as she ascended the stairs. Once Weiss reached the parade, she was finally able to lose the stupid bunny girl, who was probably also here for the parade. But losing the faunus wasn't her goal at the moment; she really wanted to _find_ , not lose, her teammates.

The line of thought, _'Think: If I were Ruby, which direction would I go?'_ helped her a little. Her teammates took the flight with the most optimal route, which left them west of the parade route, so that would probably be the best direction to look.

There were _far_ too many people standing here to beg for candy, which tremendously slowed the heiress's journey and equally increased the difficulty of finding her teammates. Ruby's cape should be fairly easy to spot, but she didn't see it anywhere. The heiress continued west...

...And saw someone in black turn down an alley. There were plenty of people wearing black, but that particular girl _resembled_ Blake at the very least, so she followed her. Once Weiss turned the corner, she could make out that it most certainly was her teammate. But the other girl was running in the opposite direction, so she wouldn't see Weiss, and there was too much noise from the parade for Blake to be able to hear her, so the white-haired girl simply followed.

...How far were they going? After a while, they'd passed the end of the parade route and the noises faded into the distance, and they were still running. Weiss was not much of a runner, but she had no choice if she wanted to know where her friends were. 35th Street... 34th Street... Ah, finally Blake was slowing down a bit, but the heiress didn't have enough air to be able to yell at the girl to turn around.

Finally, at 27th Street, Blake turned another corner. The girl continued walking to the center of the block, then entered a building. The address was 282 27th Street(21), and the sign outside the shop read "TUKSON'S Book Trade".

The heiress was positive that Ruby and Yang were not waiting here, but she wasn't about to just turn around and leave when she'd come so far. Well, having another person around was sort of useful, too; There were always servants around when she lived in Atlas. Nah, that wasn't a reason at all. No way. And it had nothing to do with the unfamiliarity of this section of the city, either. Nope. Nor was she actually interested in finding something out about her most mysterious teammate. Why would that be a motive?

So Weiss found herself pushing the door open and walking in.

"Welcome to Tukson's Book Trade, home to every book under the sun. How may I help you?" greeted a rather muscular man wearing a red half-zippered tee-shirt over a white undershirt in addition to green khaki pants. He had cleanly cut black hair with huge sideburns all the way down his jaw, but no beard or mustache, and also had quite the hairy arms. His eyes were yellow... like Blake's.

Blake, who was standing in front of the counter at the back of the room, quickly turned around, obviously not expecting any other company. "Weiss? How did you get here?"

"I followed you, of course. I thought you might be able to lead me to the others," she replied.

"Wait," said the man Weiss assumed was Tukson, "you know this girl?"

"Yes; she's my classmate."

The man whispered something in Blake's ear, and she whispered something back. Tukson shrugged and nodded in approval.

"Um... What's going on?"

"This is Tukson," said Blake.

"I figured that out already."

"He's a..." the black-haired girl looked back and forth a few times between Weiss and Tukson, "a friend. You remember the day when we were talking, at lunch, about parents? Well... Yeah, mine are pretty dead, and Tukson has been... a big help since then."

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Tukson," Weiss greeted as she walked over to shake his hand. His grip was firm, but restrained enough to be polite. The heiress then turned to her teammate. "Was there anything else you needed to do here, or did you just walk several dozen blocks to say hello?"

"Right. Um, I'd rather not have you around..."

"What, you have some top secret classified information or illegal objects?"

Blake sighed in defeat. "No, not really. Tukson is..." she glanced between the two once again, "he's moving soon, so I wanted to see how the preparations were going. I don't know when we'll be able to see each other again once he's gone."

"Things are looking pretty good on all fronts," he carefully answered. _Was that supposed to mean something? It's like he's hiding something._ "And I got a surprise book for you." Blake was handed a nondescript black hardcover book with no writing on any sides of the cover, but the man attempted to sneak in a few whispered words during the transfer.

"What is going on?!"

"We're leaving, that's what. Unless you wanted a book, too?"

"Sorry," Weiss said to the store owner, "but I'm not really looking for any reading material right now. Maybe another time."

"Very well."

"See you later, Tukson!" Blake said as she headed for the door.

"Later!" the man replied.

The teammates walked out of the store.

"So where are we?"

"Two eighty-two twenty-seventh street." When Weiss gave her teammate a glare, she continued. "It's fairly far west in the business district. The parade should still be going. I went with Ruby and Yang, but it got a little boring and I wanted to see Tukson anyway, so I slipped away. They probably didn't notice. And now we can get back, and they hopefully won't even know anything is wrong."

"And what _is_ wrong? What were all those whispers about?"

"It's- It's- I can't tell you. You wouldn't understand."

"Why wouldn't I understand?"

"Weiss, I haven't had a nice life like you. It's not easy growing up without parents. Trust me; you wouldn't understand."

"What, were you planning a robbery or something? Those have been in the news recently. Tukson seems to have a decent business, though..."

"No, nothing like that!" Blake left no more room for argument as she briskly walked back toward the parade.

* * *

When Weiss and Blake were close to the parade once more, the black-haired girl texted Ruby some excuse about losing them, and arranged to meet at the farthest street west on the parade route.

There were still a lot of people to sort through, but eventually, a particularly obese man moved to the side, revealing a trademark red cape.

"...Weiss? Weiss! You came!" Suddenly, the heiress had zero access to oxygen.

"Don't- touch- me-!"

"Sorry I should probably let you breathe but I was just so glad that you finally came that's just amazing I never expected it we can be friends again _YAY_!"

"Hey, Ruby," said Yang. "They're throwing out packaged cookies."

The false redhead instantly took the bait. It wasn't a lie; there really were packages of cookies raining from the sky, delivered by a candy cane-shaped cannon mounted on an edible-looking sugar-filled float. Ruby used her Semblance to completely fill her arms with the treats, much to the chagrin of hordes of disappointed parents and their crying young children. But she wasn't done just because her arms were full; no, she dumped an armload in her sister's arms and went back for more, filling up her entire team. Finally, the leader was pleased and decided to stop.

"Ruby!" the heiress scolded. "You can't just take all those sweets from all those children! Have a heart!"

"But, but, but, but, but I'm a children too!"

Yang tossed her armful of cookies to nearby children to free her hands, then pulled on her sister's ears. "Ruby, you may not be seventeen yet, but Ozpin let you into Beacon, so you _have_ _to_ act like an adult. Little kids don't have their Semblances unlocked, and especially don't have yours. They need to be given a chance."

Ruby's shoulders slumped a bit, but after two seconds they rose again. Apparently she changed her mind that quickly. "OKAY, KIDDIES, WHO WANTS SOME COOKIES? I GOT A COUPLE EXTRA!" She was immediately swamped by dozens of six-year-olds and cleaned out her entire team's combined stash. When the horde dissipated, Ruby stood in place, rocking back and forth with a goofy smile on her face. "It feels so nice to help people... sometimes... Aw, crap; we don't have any cookies now!"

"It's okay, Ruby," her sister consoled. "Maybe there will be more cookies later."

"But that's the end of the parade right over there!" Sure enough, the last few floats were making their way along the three final blocks of the route, and none of them were firing clips of cookies. "Well, at least I got _some_ candy..." she muttered.

Yang poked Ruby's combat skirt, creating many crinkly noises indicative of candy wrappers. "Yeah, a full skirt is _some_ candy, all right."

Ruby could only stick out her bottom lip in reply.

"Well, _I_ enjoyed the parade," Yang said. "They had some pretty good bands playing. And the fire-themed float was amazing! It's incredible that it was approved; the flames got kinda close to a few of the buildings."

They probably wanted a response out of her now. _Think quickly..._ "I thought it was a wonderful parade. It really showed this kingdom's..( 22) liveliness and.. innovation."

"I was actually a little distracted from the floats for a while," Blake said. "There are so many interesting people that come out for parades, you know?"

 _Not a bad lie, although Tukson wasn't exactly part of the parade, and he certainly wasn't new to her._

Yang's eyebrows reached what may have been a new maximum height. "Wait... Are you telling me that _you_ went around talking to _people_ for the heck of it?"

"Just a couple..."

"Where? I have to go congratulate them on making Mrs. Book in the Corner talk."

"Probably long gone. Oh, Ruby, it looks like those are strawberry-shaped candies."

Blake wasn't wrong, but Ruby was a little more reasonable this time around. She only took a handful of the treats.

They looked fairly appetizing, actually...

After a quick glance to each side, Weiss stepped onto the street and picked up one of the fallen strawberries, then jammed it in her currently empty Dust pouch(23). And she successfully went unnoticed – her teammates were busy observing and taking candy from the next float.

Only a couple more attractions passed before the parade was over and the living wave of departing people reached Team RWBY's area. "I guess that's it," announced Ruby. "We'd better get back to Beacon for the expo!"

* * *

The return journey went much more smoothly than Weiss's less-than-optimal trek _to_ the parade. They only had to walk three blocks to get to the central air docks, and after only a seven minute wait for the next airship, it was a short four-minute flight( 24) to get back to Beacon. The team ate a quick supper, then headed to the weapon shop they'd been using to build their robot.

"Yaaaaaang, we forgot to name it! You wanted an ursa, so you should have the honors."

"Ruby," Weiss scolded, "a _project_ doesn't need a name. It's a heap of metal arranged properly so that it functions; it's not a person."

Ruby scoffed. "I beg to differ! S- um, Yang a little help here?"

"Let's call it Creep."

"Yeah, _Creep_ is a person, too! She-"

"He."

"He has feelings just like us. Wait, what? Why would it be named Creep? It's an ursa! Yaaaang!"

"Creep feels unloved right now."

"Guh..."

Earlier in the week, the team had scrounged up several spare wheels, screws, brackets, and pieces of wood, and made a cart for the robot, but they had yet to test the makeshift contraption.

"One... Two... Three... and up!"

Weiss _really_ didn't appreciate being treated like some faunus laborer, but it was only a few seconds of lifting and then they were done: Creep was successfully sprawled on top of his dolly.

"Okay, Yang, we're good to go!"

The strongest member of the group had no troubles using the attached rope to pull Creep out of the room and out the door, then across a sidewalk and to the amphitheater. "Exhibit sixteen, right? In the center of the east half," Yang asked for confirmation.

"Yes(25)."

After Creep was settled in, Weiss decided she would look at other exhibits. She was slightly interested in what other people had created... And she was slightly interested in not being seen around her team's stupid ursa. She walked away as soon as Creep the ursa first touched the floor, completely unworried about whether it would decide to work this time. (It _had_ worked in the lab, but not every time. But that wasn't her problem.)

There weren't any other robots on display, although there were several prototype weapons. One such underwhelming weapon was a net launcher. It could be used in melee by releasing a net to the end of the barrel and simply swinging it around to hit or trap things, but was clearly designed to be used at range. The net ammunition was specially designed to stay tightly packed in a ball as it traveled through the air, and then a pull of the launcher's second trigger set off a small explosion that opened the net. Timing wasn't too critical if the user just wanted _a_ result: If opened early, the net would trap its victim, but if opened too late, the net would simply act as an explosive round.

Weapons weren't all that interesting to the heiress, so she decided to check out other displays. Ruby would definitely spend all her time on weapons, if she wasn't already spending all her time with her robot, but Weiss already had a weapon and didn't feel a need to learn much about other ones. She headed out of the "practical items" section and toward the "art" section. Through years of conditioning as a child, she had truly gained an appreciation for art. Although plenty of aspects of Weiss's training were all temporary things to switch on and off in order to please her superiors, art was not a thing she only pretended to like.

Some of the art exhibits were paintings, ceramic models, or innovative combinations of scraps from nature. The heiress flitted around between displays for a several minutes, but eventually found herself glued in front of an incredible three-dimensional model of Beacon carved out of a large rock. There was _so_ much detail: Not only was every building included, but even windows and doorknobs were included, and everything was in the correct proportion. Even some _internal_ details had been carved out. The library was properly furnished and... _Oh my- oh my- oh my- oh my Monty! There's a scale model of THIS SCALE MODEL in the center of the amphitheater. My brain almost hurts, but it's too busy filling up with dopamine_ (26) _. I wonder if it goes farther?_

" _He_ llo-o. How goes it?"

Weiss found Exzys(27) standing to her left. The girl from GAZE with a rock Semblance... "By Oum! Did _you_ make this?"

"Yup!" Exzys replied.

"It's... incredible," Weiss said with a strong tone of awe. "No, it's beyond incredible. It's beyond words! How did you do it?"

"M' Semblance. Duh," the short girl replied. "Have you got your head on straight?"

"But... I never thought it was possible to control such fine details with a Semblance. It must have taken forever!"

"Yeah," the girl replied, tapping her bottom lip with her right index finger. "It did take a while. Like maybe even a few minutes."

"...Minutes? All it took was minutes?"

"Nope! Jeez, you're easy to fool. I spent a few hours a day on the weekends. But it was so fun! _So_ worth it."

"Do you... Do you think you'd be willing to sell it? It's probably worth tens of thousands."

"You know what?" the girl asked, in a _much_ too cheerful tone. "I just don't think so." Weiss slumped immediately. "Instead, I'll make you another one! Or whatever other thing you want."

 _Oh my Monty oh my Monty oh my Monty oh my Monty_ "Oh my Monty, are you serious?"

"Yup!"

"Like _seriously_ serious?"

"Yup! Just let me know some other day when you've decided. I'm kinda busy right now," she said, as cheerful as ever. "Gotta keep track of the girlfriend, you know," she whispered. "See ya later!"

 _Girlfriend_. That bothered Weiss so much. _Exzys_ was a girl. She was supposed to have a boyfriend, not a girlfriend. _Weiss_ would surely never have a girlfriend; Father would never allow it. And Weiss wasn't that type of girl; she _couldn't_ be. The only reason she was the SDC heiress was because she could be married and continue the family lineage. ...Actually, that thought made her feel a little sick. What was she, a cow? It was _her_ life. But her life belonged to Father, according to him. _Idiot control freak. But he's too stupid to realize that I wanted to go to school here rather than in Atlas so I could be away from him. ...Maybe it would even be fun to pretend to have a girlfriend for a while, just to spite him. I mean, there are basically zero attractive guys at this school, so it's not like I'd be missing out. ...But it's not like I even like any girls. ...Right? ...Exzys is kind of cute. Ew, what am I thinking? There's no way I would get along with her, and besides, she's taken. ...Seriously? That's my best excuse?_ The heiress sighed and walked away from the miniature Beacon. _This isn't even worth my thought._

Forever Fall was quite the popular setting for many of the paintings and drawings. But none of them were anywhere near as good as the one she'd brought from home, so Weiss quickly lost interest.

Some art exhibits were less visual: There was an abundance of stories, essays, poems, and songs, and some people even choreographed dances for the event. Weiss could have done okay with singing or dancing, but there wasn't much of a point. Those were _personal_ hobbies unless Father wanted her to perform. Plus Ruby had lured her into robot-making right away...

Many of these verbal or physical arts were being presented on the main stage, so the heiress made her way over there, and found Pyrrha already watching. It looked like Weiss had arrived right on time. Nora was walking off the stage _(Nobody wants to hear her horrible crooning)_ and Coco was walking on. The second-year strutted to the center and snapped her fingers. The stage lights dimmed and music started playing. Coco danced and sang along, and gosh darn it, it was good, but the author was too lazy to try to think about "cool" songs or dances.

After that experience, which was far more enjoyable for Weiss and Pyrrha than for the readers, Coco's teammate, Velvet, came on stage. She walked up to the main microphone with a sheet of paper in hand and began reading.

"Faunus – what's it like to be one?  
Well, I know the same trees, rivers, cities, moon, and sun."

Oookay. The heiress wouldn't be listening to this one. "Sorry, Pyrrha, but I think I want to go look at... some paintings."

"You shouldn't just walk out in the middle of a performance, Weiss."

Mental sigh. _Fine. I'll just get this over with, then._

"I have a heart, a soul, a brain;  
I can run, learn, sing, and cleave enemies in twain.  
I have hopes and dreams, loves and fears,  
And a fuzzy extra set of ears.  
I'm no better, no worse than a human: I'm the same;  
To object to this is quite simply a shame.  
But what the faunus don't have is equality,  
Constantly looked down upon for animalistic morphology.  
We're called beasts – for what? For looks.  
Not for natural aggression; I wouldn't harm even a book.  
Everyone is different, whether human or faunus;  
Don't look at appearances and rain doom upon us.  
Eyes see the surface, but a sharp mind sees below...  
The heart is what matters, that's what you really should know."

Wow. Such political ursa crap. Now she needed a better performance to take her mind off that s**t, so she decided to stay a while longer.

" _C'mon, Weiss. You skipped out yesterday, so you should watch Creep for at least a little while today."_

" _I just don't like it, Yang. Just because I helped you make it doesn't mean I have to force myself to appreciate it as well."_

Two hours later, the heiress came to regret that decision. Creep was currently rampaging around the expo site knocking over all sorts of creations. "Are you sure you can't make it stop, Ruby?"

"I'm sure! I'm pressing every button on the stupid controller!"

"I know a little about stopping robots," announced Blake as she ran off.

If that was supposed to be a solution, Weiss didn't think it was a good one. "Great. Abandonment is just what we needed."

"I have a banana peel in my back pocket," offered Ruby.

"There's no way that will work."

"Don't know until you try!" Ruby chirped as she hopped off to test her theory. The girl threw the yellow peel right into the robo-ursa's current trajectory. Creep gave no sign of wanting to change directions. If the plan was going to work, it would be now.

Creep stepped on the peel, then shifted his weight forward to step again... and succeeded. He continued walking away from the trap and knocked over another table full of paintings.

"Gee darn it! Please stop, Creep! Please!" Ruby hopped up and down on the mechanism's back, but it didn't care in the least.

"Maybe we'll just have to do this the fun way," said Yang, cracking her knuckles.

Ruby was almost instantly back at the brawler's side, hanging off of her now. "No! You can't hurt Creep!"

" _I_ think it's a good idea," the heiress added.

"But- but- but- okay, fine. Just... try to make it an honorable death."

"Will do, sis."

Yang approached the haywire contraption and loaded a fist back, but before she could punch, Creep fell to the ground with Blake on top of it. "I added an emergency stop button under its left shoulder spike," she explained, "but it's the type that requires a ballpoint pen. Sorry it took so long."

Ruby rushed over to the scene and glomped Blake. "Thank you for saving Creep! I'm so glad! Ooh, let's go eat lunch; I'm starving."

The black-haired girl's new frown disappeared once Ruby let go of her. "Shouldn't we get the bot back to our stall first?"

"Oh..."

"I'll check for error codes and fix any programming flaws I find," said Weiss. "We might be able to get a few more hours out of" – Ruby pouted at the heiress – "...him."

* * *

The Oumsday festivities were moving along just fine. Team RWBY had eaten lunch, and after an hour of Weiss's examinations, Creep was functional once again. But now, the heiress was watching him with a pen in hand. If they lost control again, she'd be ready.

There was a surprising number of people who wanted to try out Creep. The ursa-bot was plated with a thick layer of metal so that he didn't get completely annihilated by his sparring bouts, but other than his beefy defenses, he functioned a lot like a (domesticated) ursa would.

Currently, Cardin Winchester was trying his hand at combating the beast, but he was getting his rear end handed to him. Of course, part of the reason was because Weiss was using Creep's manual controller to make the robot react unnaturally well, but Cardin was still no match for ursai in general.

"What's the matter, Mr. Winchester? Can't beat a little ursa?" she taunted.

Jaune walked up to the display. "Here, let me show you how it's done."

The boy approached Creep cautiously, slashing at the bot's side once he was in range. Weiss released the replica ursa from her control, and the AI naturally turned its attention to Jaune. He blocked a paw swipe with his shield and countered with a slash across its stomach, but that exposed his sword side to the robot's second paw. The blonde was catapulted several meters away. Luckily, Creep had a large exhibition area cordoned off for him, so the boy didn't hurt anyone or anything else, and his aura protected him from any serious damage. Weiss rolled her eyes. He was still only slightly capable of combat after so many weeks.

"On second thought, maybe that's enough for now," he chuckled. "I'm going to go check out some of the weapons."

A few customers later, Creep's duel was interrupted by an announcement. The microphone on the stage was turned up a few notches and a large, cloaked man spoke into it. "May I have your attention, please(28)?" The many conversations in the room all ground to a halt to listen to the announcement. _Why is he wearing such a shady outfit?_ "As you all know, Oumsday was founded to foster a spirit of creativity. I applaud all the many projects made for the holiday this year." _Uh... I don't think he's one of the professors, so why is he giving a speech? He should've been introduced._ "However, I would like to share with you _my_ project. It may be a little unorthodox, but I believe it will demonstrate this same spirit of creativity. To create _chaos_."

The man tore his cloak off, revealing black pants, a white sleeveless collared shirt, matching white gloves, and a face covered by a Grimm mask. "Remember, kiddos," the man said, now without any hint of the former politeness, "the White Fang will always be ten times more creative than you humans."

"Sh*t," swore Blake.

The masked man continued his speech. "The bomb under Display 46 is sealed to the floor with an adhesive that has been proven to withstand even a five minute barrage of fire Dust. And the countdown is currently at sixty seconds."

Pyrrha, who had been standing right next to the stage during the announcement, jumped onto the raised platform. She had retrieved her weapon after stopping by Team RWBY's project after the rampage, so she drew it now to fight the infiltrator. The man didn't even attempt to move away from Pyrrha's first slash, and it connected – with a false image that shattered and fell out of the air.

"What the Dust?! He can't be serious, can he?" Weiss asked, to nobody in particular.

Ruby mounted a nearby table and addressed her team. "We only have one option. He's been a great friend, but our only hope is to use Creep as a shield."

That... was a good idea. Weiss tossed the controller to Ruby, who caught it easily and cranked Creep up to full throttle. The robot rushed across the room, bowling tables out of the way as he went, and stopped once he overturned the table that contained the painting labeled "Display 46"(29). There was a moderately large metal lump on the floor there, blinking violently. Ruby jabbed a couple more buttons, making Creep jump high into air, then he came crashing down on top of the bomb, making a miniature crater in the ground.

"I hope he holds..." Yang nervously whispered to Weiss as she ran toward the nearest exit.

The countdown was not displayed on any screen in the room, nor was there any audio warning, so all they could do was get away and hope.

As Weiss pushed open a door, she heard a partially muffled _boom_ , then the clanging of metal bits on the stone floor. There was no shockwave and no bright light, but there was no Creep anymore, either.

Weiss turned to Ruby, who had also stopped to look behind her. "I can't believe Creep actually did it!" the heiress cheered. _Her_ robot, that _she'd_ helped create, had just sacrificed its life to protect a large portion of the student body. And a bunch of cool projects. The adrenaline was flowing through Weiss, and she couldn't help it. She _initiated_ a hug with Ruby.

After a second, Yang joined in, pulling Blake with her. "Group hug! ...Y'know, Creep was a good friend, but at least he went out with a _Yang_."

If Weiss's arms had been free, she would have facepalmed.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

(1) May: See the pre-chapter Author's Note. Canon says the second semester contains Fall.

(2) Ren only has three points because he is not competitive and he is rather quiet. He knows, but both wants to give the others a chance and doesn't want a chance for himself. Similarly, Yang is competitive, so even though she's not as academic as Blake, she has more points.

(3) terraphim: The worm creature from (my) Chapter 1. The name is a combination of terra, for ground, and seraphim, which are upper-class, many-eyed angels. Terraphim are thus a perversion of the seraphim: They, too, have eyes, but for fear and evil rather than for "seeing inside" (I'd presume that's the intended original symbolism). And rather than being high divine beings, they are low evil beings. Terraphim are also earthbound, while seraphim have six wings and are capable of flight.

(4) change species: The goliaths are described as being old, experienced Grimm. How would there only be large, old goliaths? It's possible that there _can't_ be any young goliaths. Similarly, there are small and large nevermores. I think it's reasonable to believe that Grimm change species as they get older rather than only getting larger within their species. But there are probably more factors involved than only age. Boarbatusks, (small) creeps, and beowolves are somewhat similar in size and threat level, so there could be environmental adjustments.

(5) talpurt: The mole creature from (my) Chapter 1. The name is a combination of _talpidae_ , the family name for moles, and earth (urt)... because why not? If you have better ideas, I'll certainly consider them – I'm not as certain about this one as I am about terraphim. Like, seriously, I do make changes to chapters long after they're published. I've done it already to standardize the capitalization of Father when Weiss uses that as a name to refer to her father rather than just saying "my father". I also changed the formatting for Weiss's notes in Chapter 2 since the website doesn't let you do things exactly the way you want them.

(6) Time to whip out the RNG. Who do I recruit?...

(7) (a) Alevyí: See Chapter 3. Second member of my OC team, GAZE. Pink themed. Has a bow, rapier, and dagger. Upper-class. I figured Yang and Weiss would know her better than the others since Alevyí is popular, social, and wealthy, which fits those two best.  
(b) I finally thought of a last name for her; that's kind of important since she's supposed to be part of a rich family (in this and in her original world). Oëmaiÿe (oh eh my yuh, approximately). I liked that it makes her initials AO, for alpha and omega, since she's all high status and such. In addition, Zelvendis's last name is Taelkiryié (tel keer yee ay, approximately) since her prime ancestor, a war general, was named Taelkirye. Exzys's last name is Gyudel... but I'm not sure that I should use that in this story with a person having that as their first name. Gyudel is her great-grandfather originally, but clearly not here. Gyudel doesn't have a last name. Also, team names are supposed to be color-related, but I suppose GAZE sort of is, a bit. GAZE = viewing, so it still deals with optical things. Their team name is about seeing rather than about being seen.

(8) "I hope I won't need to come over here again.": This is meant to indicate her way of speaking. She certainly likes things to be "proper" like Weiss, but is much more polite about things. Where Weiss would say that line as a threat/scolding, Alevyí says it as a gentle informative reminder. I felt that it would be good to footnote this since there's not much time to really get to know the character, which is normally necessary to get to know their voice if there isn't an audio reference (she's obviously not in the show). Best to know intentions early on.

(9) "If I were you": Past subjunctive: Were, not was. For discussing an impossible situation as if it were true. Heh. Used it in my explanation. (...And then at the end of this piece of Weiss dialogue there's a hanging preposition. Lel.)

(10) run away... never mind: She has to dodge the question for now. This gets saved for Mountain Glenn. Some things _will_ be moved ahead, but not that. Not a whole lot of reason to do so.

(11) first day of her sister's adulthood: I figured seventeen is the general age for adulthood on Remnant. That's when students go to specialized schools (or at least for hunters) rather than general schools (Signal is a _combat_ school, likely for pre-military and pre-law enforcement people as well – it certainly could be an option between combat school, trade school [practical hands-on skills], academic school [science, language, law...], or just working at shops or factories and such).

(12) (a) Mehhhhh. Stupid fanfiction formatting. I'll have to just center everything so it's distinguishable from actual story. If anyone has any actual formatting ideas, they're quite welcome.  
(b) In V3Chp3, Winter mentions that Weiss "wrote" to her, and I took that as meaning a letter. I decided it may as well be sent now and Winter just never replies. I am rather pleased with V3Chp3's personality depiction of Winter; although I formulated my Winter ideas before Volume 3 was released, I don't actually have to change anything.

(13) bit the Dust cartridge: Equivalent for "bit the bullet". May as well.

(14) Team IDIOT: If you'll remember, Weiss used that name for Team CRDL in the previous chapter. Idiot doesn't even have four letters... which is the point.

(15) Couldn't she ever just have a normal journey from point A to point B?: Nope. Because when that happens, I don't write it unless I feel like describing the setting more than usual, which usually is not the case.

(16) Two extra stops: RWBY is fairly American, so I figured they probably use the same floor numbering as in the U.S., with ground level typically being the first floor. Some places have ground level be G, and then the first floor is the first one above G, but that will not be the case here. (Floor 4 - Floor 1 start = 3 floor difference, and the last one is the one she actually wants, so two extra stops. Not complicated, but not everyone is mathematically inclined.)

(17) This is probably going to be the least probable thing I'll have in the story. There's no reason for them to be able to build a robot, but Ruby is amazing and Weiss is good at learning, so I guess it could be remotely possible. If you have better ideas, I'd be fine with hearing them, but at this point I'm fine with this unimportant, illogical detail.

(18) Look at Torchwick's map. Commercial and Residential are closest to Beacon.

(19) thirty kilometers: New York and its surroundings is 8683 square kilometers, or about 105 km in diameter if it were circular, with a population of about 18 million. Similarly, the highest population city is Tokyo, with about 33 million people. I'd say the lower bound would be maybe a population of 10000 per city, but I highly doubt there are only a few dozen thousand people in the world... Based on the World of Remnant videos, the capital cities are probably all or almost all of the entire kingdoms. (Grimm _cover most of the planet_ , and the kingdoms are _refuges_ for the people.) So the kingdoms are probably large metropolises, perhaps with some farmland and mines and such outside of the walls (although there's an agricultural district _inside_ Vale on Torchwick's map), but they probably aren't way bigger than Earth cities. But that doesn't make sense for Vacuo, which is a good place for hiding and is in the desert, so it's likely spread out over several smaller settlements, and might even be somewhat safe outside of walls because of the desert. But Vale definitely looks like one giant city ( _the city covers an entire giant peninsula on the world map_ ), and with how high-tech and northern Atlas is, it's probably one metropolis as well.

(20) ten minutes: Modern bullet trains can go over 300 km/hr, so 30 km would take six minutes. But it's _over_ 30 km, and there are other stops along the way, so Weiss gets a ten minute ride.

(21) 27th Street: Slight spoiler for my story, but 282 27th Street is mentioned non-verbally in V2E1. It's Tukson's shop. And the numbers were counting down because I figured the roads probably started with 1 in the west so the city could expand as much as necessary without going negative or otherwise changing the numbering scheme.

(22) Two dots because it's supposed to be a very short pause.

(23) currently empty Dust pouch: The pouch on the back of Weiss's dress. As far as I'm concerned, it's primarily for Dust, but acts as an emergency pocket if she's not currently loaded up for combat.

(24) four-minute flight: 60 km divided by 900 km/hr is a four minute flight.

(25) "Yes": Who says that? I don't know. Almost anyone could. You're welcome for this useless note.

(26) dopamine: A neurotransmitter, best known for its involvement in creating the sensation of happiness.

(27) Exzys: Once again, consult Chapter 3 footnotes for better reminders. Fourth member of my OC team, GAZE. Wild black hair, and not-too-modest modifications to the school uniform. Has a large hammer and axe. Uses rock with her Semblance, both to gain strength and to shape it for all sorts of uses. Probably a registered psychopath.

(28) "May I have your attention, please?": If you think you recognize that line from RWBY, you're probably right. It's from Volume 2...

(29) Display 46: As far as I know, that number doesn't have any special meaning, so if it lines up with something, it's a coincidence.

Mm. I forgot to note in previous chapters that V3Chp1 confirmed my hunch from Chapter 2 that Weiss has a credit (or debit) card from her dad. Don't have to go back and edit that one.

Ow. Poetry. I think I've cleared my quota for the decade.

Oops. Sort of broke the fourth wall.

 **EXTREMELY IMPORTANT. PLEASE READ IF YOU CARE ABOUT CHARACTERS:** Just writing here to remind you that this story is in the Tragedy genre. During the writing of this chapter I randomly rolled on ALL characters who exist (see RWBY wiki, plus my OCs, plus Mr. Schnee, plus any other OCs that may need to be added) to determine their final fate by the end of the story, except for those I've already given plot armor in order for the story to function. It's looking awfully bloody. If you petition me nicely for characters that you love (and you're unlucky enough that they're among those chosen), I MIGHT spare them and move deaths to less important characters. I'm not going to directly say (in an Author's Note) which ones are chosen, and I'll only allow one chance at one petition per person, and won't necessarily accept them. Sorry that this is basically a request for reviews or PMs, but I figured it would be best to get this out early enough that people can start deciding whether they want to defend anyone. It's for you, not me. Hint: Please ignore RWBY and JNPR. They're far too important for me to have rolled their lives away. (Actually, I did randomly roll JNPR since they're not that important to me even if they're extremely important to plenty of the show's fans, but they all lived.) I won't mind if people don't ask to spare characters, but you guys might mind in retrospect as early as ten(?) chapters down the road. (Wow, when I did quick estimates of how many chapters there will be, it might be in the mid-twenties by the time I get to the first currently-planned death. The Chapter 5 was rather short for a canon coverage chapter, too... And there's plenty of story after the first death. Dang, I'm going to get anxious to write the ending. There will be at least a couple hundred thousand words, and if I don't slack, probably over half a million. The whole point was to not slack, though, or it would've been a one-shot.) Anyway, if there's some minor character you don't want dead, you'd better let me know with some nice complaints.

 **Chapter Synopsis:** JNPR and RWBY study in the library and introduce Weiss to Oumsday. Weiss ponders her relationship with Winter and decides to write a letter. Team RWBY makes a robo-ursa for the festival. Weiss refuses to go to the parade, but eventually caves in to guilt over potentially ruining her friendship with Ruby, and goes. She sees Blake talk to a man named Tukson, then the team watches the parade some more. They present their robo-ursa at the school... which doesn't work out exactly as planned.

 **Changes Synopsis:** N/A

I try to reply to all reviews and such, but I've ignored unsigned reviews until now, so may as well go over them:

Wall Penetrator chapter 1 . Oct 15: [It's time to shift into MAXIMUM MONODRIVE!  
Can't believe you made descriptions of even the tiniest of details, not that I'm complaining though. Great job]  
Thank you for enjoying. If you're worried about too many details, they will be more relevant to story for the most part once I get somewhere, although I'm not planning on slacking in describing settings. It annoys me when I can't visualize scenes as a reader.

Guest chapter 2 . Oct 17: [You just realised 2 chapters but i'm already in love with the story, keep it going, please.]  
Well, that's the plan... Care to elaborate on what you like/don't like?

Guest chapter 2 . Oct 17: [Good work so far! Let's keep it going. I'm interested to see your take on the plot]  
Basically gets the same response as the previous review. I'm sure my plot is going to go places RWBY won't; it's not just a rewrite.

XXSHADOWSRISEXX chapter 1 . Nov 10: [You must continue!  
I love this!  
Please!]  
Will do. Again, support is nice, but describing likes/dislikes is more useful.

NateMate chapter 1 . 9h ago: [Dude your story is straight up awesomely horrible...]  
Dude, your review is straight up un-awesomely horrible. Looks like it was a waste of your time to even write it. Is there anything in particular that you dislike about the story? Or are you using some really strange sarcasm? It's quite possible that this just isn't your type of story, but then again, it's a slow start.

 **Edits:** November 16, 2016: Weiss's thoughts and letter mention Whitley.

 **Next update:** I repeat that I'm not completely sure. But this one is probably going to take longer than the others have thus far. Be prepared for three weeks, expect slightly under two, and hope for one. EDIT: Nope, the next-next one is the long, hard to write one. Result: 4 days.


	7. Hours

Chapter 7 – Hours

 **Author's Note:**

Useless statistics: Chapter finished November 21, 2015. Published November 21, 2015. Total word count: 12927. Body word count: 11456 (89%). Writing Time: 18h08m (including 1h33m calendar planning and related things, and 1h23m editing). Chapter Rating: T

I did calendars for this story. The first day at Beacon was Monday March 17, in a year that follows the same scheme as 2014. (This is so Halloween is on a Friday.) Clearly, Remnant isn't the same as Earth, so it isn't _actually_ 2014, but I have time follow the same patterns. This ironically means Oumsday in the previous chapter was Sunday June 22nd, 2014, which is actually Monty's last birthday... Rest in peace, Monty. Twelve Hours are then on Saturday July 5th, "2014". The second school year is 2015, which has a whopping three Friday the 13ths... and I'm planning on it being an interesting year anyway. The Twelve Years are over on Saturday July 4th, "2026", and that year also has three Friday the 13ths...

Here's a reminder to persuade me to save characters you like. The Chapter 6 and Chapter 1 have the full details.

Covers V1Chp15-16 and a fragment of V2Chp2. But you don't just get coverage; you get additions and (hopefully) improvements.

* * *

It was two weeks after the Oumsday celebrations. The White Fang terrorist was never caught, but the festival had continued as normal. Ruby had erected a small memorial – a pile of rocks from her collection – for Creep in the garden next to the dorms, and, much to the girl's delight, Headmaster Ozpin had paid his respects.

But it was also under two weeks away from the end of the semester. After this weekend, they would have three more days of instruction, then two days of in-class review, then another weekend, and then there were three days of exams.

The semester's end brought other changes as well. Some of the other Academies started and ended school a bit earlier than Beacon, so foreign students, who would stay for the entire second semester, would start arriving for the Vytal Festival this weekend. That was why Team RWBY was currently walking around near the docks at the far west of Vale's business district. Although studying was important, they could spare a Friday afternoon to observe the Festival decorations, evaluate arriving transfer students, and window shop to pass the time in between.

"Oh, this is absolutely wonderful!" Weiss exclaimed as she ogled another decorated street.

"I don't think I've ever seen you smile this much, Weiss," Ruby commented from behind her. "It's kinda weirding me out."

"Well, I normally have _you three_ to ensure my blood pressure is kept at an elevated level..." shot Weiss. "But how could you _not_ smile now? It's a festival dedicated to the harmony of the world! There will be dances, parades, a tournament! Oh, the amount of planning and organization that goes into this event is simply breathtaking."

As they continued to walk, Yang voiced her opinion. "You really know how to take a good thing and make it sound boring. It's not just numbers and people behind the scenes. It's a _festival_. Fun and new experiences everywhere!"

"Oh, quiet, you."

"Whoa..." said Ruby, pointing down a different street. Weiss's eyes followed Ruby's finger to a shop that was blocked off by the police. Some sort of crime scene?

The team wordlessly agreed to walk over to see what the issue was. "What happened here?" Ruby asked an investigator.

"Robbery," said a man wearing a button-up shirt and tie, slacks with suspenders, and a pair of eye-obscuring sunglasses. "Second Dust shop to be hit this week down here. This place is turning into a jungle..." He walked back toward the store's smashed front window.

"That's terrible..." said Yang.

The heiress heard the other detective address the first a couple meters away. "They left all th' money again." That _was_ rather strange.

"Huh?" asked Ruby. _We were all thinking it; you didn't need to_ say _it._

"Yeah," the first replied to his partner, "it just don't make a lick o' sense. Who'd need that much Dust?" Indeed. Nobody went through Dust _that_ quickly other than big organizations, like factories, transportation companies, and the military. These small shops were mostly for individual needs, like batteries to power personal electronics or powder to make custom ammunition. Weiss didn't have to worry about either of those; she received monthly shipments of super-grade Dust directly from the primary Schnee refinery in Atlas.

"Ah 'unno, y'know wud ah mean?" said the second detective.

"You thinkin' the, uh, th' White Fang?"

"Ya, I'm thinkin' we don't get paid unnuf."

 _Monty!, these investigators are bad. Get some_ competent _men in here. Those bozos sure aren't proving anything, although it's reasonable to believe their hunch._ "Hmph. The White Fang. I wouldn't be surprised at all if it _was_ that awful bunch of degenerates."

"What's _your_ problem?" Blake jumped in.

 _What? Who would care about the White Fang?_ " _My_ problem? I simply don't care for the criminally insane," she retorted.

"The White Fang is hardly a bunch of psychopaths," replied Blake. "They're just a collection of misguided faunus."

 _Where is this rubbish coming from?_ " _Misguided?!_ They want to wipe humanity off the face of the planet, like they tried at school two weeks ago! How can you ignore that?"

"It was _one_ rogue terrorist."

"You know what I meant. Things like this happen all the time! They want us all dead."

"Okay, so they're _very_ misguided."

"Why are you trying to _defend_ those imbeciles?"

Blake sighed. "Well no matter _your_ personal judgment on them, it doesn't explain why they'd rob a small Dust shop in a busy part of the city."

"Hmm. Blake's got a point," supported Ruby. "Besides, the police never caught that Torchwick guy I ran into a few months ago... Maybe it was him?"

 _Maybe. But that isn't the point:_ "That still doesn't change the fact that the White Fang are a bunch of scum. Those faunus only know how to lie, cheat, steal, hide, and murder."

Yang spoke out next. "That's not _necessarily_ true," she said.

The conversation was interrupted by a sailor's excessively loud plea for help from near the docks: "Hey! Stop that faunus!"

Yes, there was indeed one scumbag faunus running along a ship that recently docked. _Just in time to prove me right._ The four girls ran over to get a closer look at the situation. The boy wore blue jeans, yellow shoes, and an _open_ white button-up shirt. _PLEASE put some clothes on, idiot._ He had blonde hair, including his monkey tail, and was most certainly trying to escape from the sailors. _Did he steal something? Vandalize the cargo? Hitch an illgal ride?_

The faunus jumped off of the ship and hung upside down on a lamppost, then took a banana out of who-knows-where. It looked like the investigators from the Dust shop also decided to help apprehend the villain: They approached his new perch and said something that Weiss couldn't hear, but his response was to throw his banana peel at one of the detectives and run again. The monkey spawn ascended the stairs from the pier to the streets and kept running... toward Weiss and her team...

 _Oh. Maybe I should apprehend him._ But by the time she thought that, he had already zipped past them.

"Well, Weiss," said Yang, "you wanted to see the competition, and there it goes."

"Wait, _what_?! You think _that_ is here for the tournament? He just got off a cargo ship! We have to apprehend him!" The heiress led the charge in the direction the _scum_ went.

They ran along a sidewalk, but then the stowaway turned a corner into a side street, so Weiss turned as well. Before she could get her bearings again, she ran into something. "Oof!" Whatever it was, it stopped her plans of crook-catching. When the heiress looked up, the faunus jumped up some features on a brick wall and got to the roof. "...No! He got away!"

"Uh... Weiss?" said Yang, pointing toward her.

Oh, right. She was still on the ground. That wouldn't do for an hei-"A-aah!" She was laying on top of someone, but that issue was quickly rectified. _What an inconveniently located person._

"Salutations!" the girl, still laying on the ground, greeted. She had orange hair with a pink bow, and wore a gray dress and black pants.

"Um... hello," returned Ruby. _Scold, not greet! What have I taught you?!_

"Are you... okay?" Yang asked the new girl... who was still on the ground. _What's her problem? Does she just_ like _the street filth, like those trashy faunus?_

"I'm wonderful. Thank you for asking!"

 _Um... Psychopath alert?_

"Do you... want to get... up?" questioned the brawler.

"Yes." The girl finished her response and even waited a while longer before she finally leaped off of the street. O...kay... "My name is Penny. It's a pleasure to meet you!"

"Hi, Penny. I'm Ruby." "I'm Weiss." "Blake." "Are you sure you didn't hit your head?" *Whack*, courtesy of Blake. "Oh, I'm Yang."

"It's a pleasure to meet you!"

This girl was seriously messed up. "You _already_ said that. Are you really sure that you're fine?"

"So I did! Yes, I am fine. I am combat ready!"

Um... Whatever that was supposed to mean. She didn't have a weapon, and hardly looked like a fighter. "Well, sorry for running into you," Weiss added as a general show of courtesy. "Goodbye." The team started walking away – anywhere would be fine, as long as it was _away_.

"Take care, friend!" Ruby added.

They arrived back on the previous street, adjacent to the docks. "She was... weird," commented Yang.

" _That_ 's an understatement," the heiress replied. "Now... where did that faunus riffraff run off to?"

"What did you call me?" asked the girl they had just left, who had caught up to them and cut them off.

 _Yeah, psychopath. She's off her rocker._ Weiss flinched away and desperately pointed at Ruby to shed the blame.

"Oh, I'm really sorry," Yang apologized. "I definitely didn't think you heard me!" _Because that makes it better?_

"No, not you..." the creepy orange-haired girl said as she stalked forward slowly. _Not in my personal space not in my personal space not in my personal space PHEW!_ She approached Ruby. "You!"

"Me?" the pseudo-redhead squeaked. "Uh, ah, I uh, I-I don't know what, um, I, ah..."

"You called me _friend_. Am I really your friend?" _Psychopath. People-phobe. Danger. Danger._

"Ummmmmm..." Ruby looked to the rest of the team for help. Why? There wasn't an option! There's no way they could be friends with someone that mentally ill! Weiss waved a hand in front of her, and the other two also made quite the definitive 'no' motions. "Yeah; sure; why not?" _What is_ wrong _with you, Ruby? That was the easiest no in the world!_ The heiress was petrified with shock and shame.

"Ah-haha-ha! Sen! Sational!" cheered the creep. "We can paint our nails, and try on clothes, and talk about cute boys!"

"Ooh. Is this what it was like when you met me?" Ruby asked Weiss.

 _After that horrible failure, I'm not so sure that the orange-haired girl is the one with the mental disorder._ "No. She seems _far_ more coordinated."

Luckily, Yang cut into the conversation before Ruby could get mad. "So," she asked Penny, "what are you doing at the docks?"

"I just got to Vale recently," she replied far too cheerfully. "I'm here to fight in the tournament."

" _You_ 're fighting in the tournament?" the heiress asked incredulously.

"I'm combat ready!" Penny replied, adding in a salute for good measure.

"You said that before, but forgive me: You hardly look the part."

"Says the girl wearing a dress," Blake remarked.

Why in the world was she being so confrontational today? She was supposed to be the quiet person that everyone could ignore! "It's a combat skirt!" Weiss retorted.

"Yeah!" added Ruby, who gave the heiress a _low_ -five.

"I don't see any difference."

" _It's a combat skirt._ " Weiss turned to Penny. "Wait a minute... Remember when you ran into me? Do you know anything about that monkey-tailed... rapscallion?"

"The who?"

"The filthy faunus from the boat!" _Is her memory really that bad?!_

"Why do you keep saying that?" accused Blake.

"Huh? Saying what?"

"Stop calling him a rapscallion; stop calling him a degenerate. He's a person!"

 _WHY does she feel the need to support the scum of the world?_ "Oh; I'm sorry. Would you like for me to stop referring to the trashcan here as a trashcan, or that lamppost there as a lamppost?"

"Stop it!"

"Stop what? He clearly broke the law. Give him time, and he'll probably join up with those other faunus in the White Fang."

"You ignorant little brat! I'm sure he had a reason for what he did."

"Like what? The thrill of the crime?"

"Stupid snob..." The black-haired teammate stalked away.

"How _dare_ you talk to me like that?! _I_ am your _teammate_."

That made the other girl stop. "You are a judgmental _little girl_."

"What in the world makes you say that?"

Ruby grabbed onto the heiress's arm and led the team toward the air docks, but Weiss hardly noticed.

"The mere fact that you would group that faunus boy with a terrorist group solely based on his species makes _you_ just as much of a scoundrel as you believe him to be."

"So you admit it! The White Fang _is_ just a radical group of terrorists. The evidence is undeniable."

"That's not what I said. I highly doubt they're _all_ bad. Did you ever get to know one of them?"

"Why would I need to talk to _trash_? I don't feel the need to talk to a lollipop wrapper that a little kid carelessly threw on the street."

"That's not my point! It's statistically impossible that they would all be evil at heart!"

"Oh, you want to talk statistics, do you? I'm sure I can find some nice police reports on my Scroll."

"Fine, and while you're doing that, I'll pull up some scientific studies on racial differences!"

"Good luck; you'll need it!"

* * *

"A handful of studies with no listed methodology means absolutely nothing." At some point, the team had arrived back in their room at Beacon, but it made no difference to Weiss.

"Police reports are inherently biased. It's _because_ of pre-existing hatred that the faunus are so often targeted by the legal system, and that just makes the relationship even worse!"

"Like you keep making _this_ situation worse?"

"You're the only one here who's ignorant enough to judge an entire race based on the easily seen outliers!"

"I don't understand why this is causing such a problem."

"That _is_ the problem."

"All these months you've never felt a need to act this stupid."

"All these months you've been rational enough to hold your tongue on subjects you don't know anything about!"

"You _do_ realize that you're trying to defend a purely evil organization that hates all of humanity, don't you?"

"There's no such thing as pure evil! Why do you think they hate humanity so much? It goes both ways! It's people like Cardin and people like _you_ who _force_ the White Fang to take such drastic measures!"

"People like _me_?"

"You're discriminatory!"

"It's discrimination based on evidence! When I see evil, I acknowledge it!"

"It's nothing but simple irrational racism! You're a world-scale predator, you and your daddy's big company!"

"We. Are. Victims."

"Oh, really? Who do you think was the victim first? There had to be a start to it all sometime."

"It must have been the flea-ridden faunus."

"It must have been the unthinking bigots of the world!"

"Why?"

"Why?"

"Nobody will ever know who started it. But we _do_ know what the situation is now."

"And the situation is that the faunus are being oppressed and have no choice but to lash out!"

"No, the reality is that the faunus' natural cruelty makes them dangerous, and the few _brave_ people in the world end up losing all their time to putting them in their place."

"The faunus are victims."

" _I'm_ a victim. Do you want to know why, really know _why_ I despise the White Fang; why I don't particularly _trust_ the faunus? It's because they've been _at war_ with my family for years, as in _actual bloodshed_. I don't care if there were conflicts before or after; the reality is that I have had to suffer through this for my entire life. The Schnee Dust Company has had a target painted across its back for as long as I can remember."

"Who do you think put it there?!"

That didn't deserve a response, so the heiress continued with her train of thought. "My childhood _sucked_. I've had to watch Father come home every day and _rage_. With good reason! We've had entire shipments of Dust be stolen... and far beyond that, lives: Family friends have disappeared... Board members have been publicly executed... And even..." her voice broke, "my mother." Her eyes started to water. _Not now... A Schnee is strong..._

"I'm sorry about your mother, but did you ever wonder why it was her? That perhaps she was the best target? That she _deserved it?_ "

"My mother was innocent!" Tears flew off of the heiress's cheeks as she turned to face her tormentor. "There's no 'deserve it' about it! The White Fang are just a bunch of liars! Thieves! Rapists! Terrorists! Murderers! They are the scum of the scum and will do any crime imaginable just to enact their petty hatred!"

"Maybe they wish they didn't _have to be_ criminals!"

"Maybe they really _are_ just _animals_."

"Maybe we were just tired of being pushed around!"

…

…

"Sh*t."

"...We?"

But the girl in black was already gone. The heiress failed to notice Ruby leave the room to chase after her, and Yang also trailed more slowly after.

"Sh*t." Weiss felt like she was going catatonic as she collapsed onto her bed.

 _White Fang._ Living _with me..._

 _Oh, Dust. 'I'm sorry about your mother.' Is that implying... she...?_

 _And at the beginning of the semester... in the gardens... what was it she said? 'The only reason I came to Beacon was to kill you.' Maybe... it's true?_

 _All the comments about the SDC throughout the semester... It's all obvious now._

 _I don't even want to think about this. A criminal, right under our noses! Deception; lies; just sitting there, waiting for the best time..._

Weiss clenched her fists and trembled with a painful mixture of fear and anger. She didn't care about eating the cold dinner Ruby had brought hours earlier. She didn't care about her hygiene right now. She didn't care about which clothes she was wearing. She wanted to just go to sleep, and hopefully things would be different in the morning. As she crawled into bed, she felt a fuzzy lump. _Stupid Mr. Fluffschnee. I don't need you right now, so stop trying to comfort me!_ The little guy was hurled at the wall next to her bed, and bounced off violently, landing back in her arms. _Stupid, stupid!_ Weiss carried him over to her laundry hamper and buried him under some dirty clothes. Hopefully they would be sufficiently sweaty and grimy to punish the little non-judgmental comforting fool for his stupid happy expression.

The heiress climbed back into bed, angrily pulled the sheets over herself, and attempted to sleep.

* * *

Blake ran out the school's front gate(1), to the statue of the hunter, huntress, and beowolf in the front courtyard. The statue, created after the Great War between the kingdoms, was supposed to be a symbol of unity, of humanity's harmonious collaboration in order to weed out the greater evils of the world... but Blake always thought that this unity was supposed to include equality. 'Humanity' wasn't supposed to mean just humans; it should have meant all of mankind, including faunus. That hope for equality seemed impossible now. So many people were too blindly caught up in their hatred to even consider the other side of the story... even, regrettably, her.

She always knew Weiss was bigoted, but it was rarely an issue when issues of race came up before. That was probably because it mostly came up in a school setting, whether in Oobleck's history class or in the cafeteria, where it would be unwise to cause such a disruption... but the black-haired girl had hoped, really hoped, that her teammate wasn't just biting her tongue. She thought it might have been possible to cure the other girl from her mental illness. Her team would have been the _best_ , the group of friends she'd always dreamed of having. Blake had been slowly trying to gain the team's trust, but at least one particular teammate had none of that anymore.

'Teammate'. Goodbye to _that_ word. Now that _they_ knew, she'd probably be kicked out of Beacon. Ozpin was supposedly a kind man, but she didn't have any faith that he would be able to stand up to the Schnees when Weiss inevitably cried to daddy to kick her out. She may as well just... leave. Get it over with herself.

She couldn't go back to the White Fang. She sneaked out fair and square, and she didn't even want to imagine the consequences if she ever returned. There was no way they'd welcome her with open arms, thankful for her return. Neither did she have a home to go back to. Tukson would certainly help, but Blake didn't want to pressure him too much; besides, he was going to desert the White Fang and get out of Vale entirely, and he wouldn't be able to help then. She supposed she could go with him. What was the point? Her friend was a pacifistic, which is why he was leaving to start a peaceful life; _she_ wanted change. She couldn't just start an organization of her own; there would be no support. Nobody would join, nobody would listen, and more immediately importantly, she'd starve to death. She didn't want to steal. She didn't want to kill. She didn't want to lie. She'd done too much already.

Well, Tukson would probably be willing to accommodate her for a couple days until she figured something out. There wasn't much else for options.

 _Goodbye, happy 'normal' life. I'll always remember my time at Beacon..._

The girl removed her ribbon, exposing her ears; the simple disguise wouldn't be important anymore.

"I knew you would look better without the bow."

"You." It was the runaway monkey faunus from earlier, the catalyst for her current situation. If he hadn't run from the authorities, Weiss might have dropped the subject. Hopefully he wasn't really as bad as her teammates thought. All she knew right now was that it would be good to spend time with someone who understood.

"My name's Sun Wukong. It's nice to meet you, ..."

"Blake."

"It's nice to meet you, Blake," said Sun. "So what brings you out here?"

"Just leaving. Why are _you_ here?" she countered.

"I'm here for the Vytal Festival. I come from Haven, and I'm actually competing in the tournament; isn't that cool?"

"Sure." She would've enjoyed participating as well, but that opportunity was long gone. Blake walked toward the air docks.

"Hey, wait; where are you going?"

"Vale."

The monkey boy sighed behind her, and soon his footsteps were catching up. "My team's got a room if you want a place to crash. Plus, there's plenty of space: The others haven't arrived yet."

Blake gave the boy a quick questioning glance. "Team?" They had arrived at the docks, but there wouldn't be a flight for a good while. She remembered to take out her Scroll and turn it off so the others wouldn't bother her.

"I missed the boat, so I hitched a ride on a cargo ship instead. It worked out just fine, although I'm not quite sure how I arrived first. So... I'm guessing you're not taking me up on my offer?"

Blake only glared in response. No way did she want to stay at the school for another day, and no way did she want to lock herself in a room with a stranger. They sat at the dock awkwardly until a transport airship came along.

* * *

"Uh, Blake, where are we going?"

"You didn't have to follow."

"Oh, I'm not leaving. Where are we going?"

She didn't answer. He would find out soon enough. Twenty-four...

Twenty-five...

Twenty-six...

Twenty-seventh street. Blake turned to the door of building number 282 and punched the unlock code into the number pad next to the door. The bolts clicked back and she swung the door open.

"Why are we breaking into some book store, and how did you get the password that quickly?"

"Shh..." Blake whispered. "He's sleeping upstairs."

"Who?" Sun replied, luckily in a lower voice than before.

"My friend. Goodnight." Blake punched in the code again so the door was locked from the outside, then headed to the back of the store. Tukson had spare blankets in a box under the stairs in the back room, which he had bought to use for himself while Blake used his bed during her wait for the semester to start. She had insisted that she was fine with sleeping on the floor, but he was too kind.

"Hey, wait! What am I supposed to do?"

"You can take a blanket or leave." The faunus girl curled up in a corner of the back room and tried to sleep. She heard the boy rummage around in the blanket box and then leave the back room to settle in under the store's main desk.

Hopefully things would be better in the morning.

* * *

"Blake?"

"Morning, Tukson," she yawned. "I'll get out of your hair; just needed a place to crash for the night."

"Is everything alright?" he asked.

Blake simply shrugged and put away her blanket. "I hope things go well for your move."

"I don't have to worry too much about that right now. I finally got my plane tickets, and they're for the beginning of August. Are you sure everything is okay?"

At that point, Sun woke up in the adjacent room and stumbled into their room to replace his blanket. "Oh, hey man. Thanks for the nice floor. Name's Sun."

Tukson gave the boy a once-over, his eyes lingering a bit longer on the tail. "Nice to meet you, Sun. Are you another of Blake's new friends?"

The girl didn't answer, but Sun did. "Uh, probably. I mean, we just met yesterday, but she's pretty cool. Just hanging out for the weekend or something."

 _'Pretty cool.' Sure. If having no place to go can be considered cool._

"And hanging out entails sleeping in some guy's store?" the older man asked.

"He followed me, but the company is appreciated for now," Blake replied.

"No teammates this time?"

Blake quickly shifted the conversation in a different direction, specifically, into a dead end. "See you later, Tukson."

"Wait! Just... here's a couple Lien to help out for a while." Tukson offered a handful of the colorful cards. "Please be careful..."

She took the money and walked out of the store without another word.

* * *

"There's been no sign of her all day..." said Ruby.

It was a _sunny_ day, which had somewhat dissolved the sour mood, but then Ruby and Yang had dragged Weiss off to look for Blake in the late morning. The team hadn't found her anywhere around Beacon _(She's gone, and good riddance.)_ , so then the annoying sisters had decided to take a trip to Vale's docks. After all, they'd reasoned, that was one of the team's favorite places to relax. It had a nice, homely atmosphere, unlike in the middle of the city. But this was no relaxing trip.

"Blake's a big girl; I'm sure she can handle herself," the heiress mockingly reassured.

"Weiss, come on," said Yang. "She's one of our teammates."

"Is she? We all heard what she said. Maybe we'll get a better one."

" _Weiss._ " "Maybe she is; maybe she isn't. But we can't just abandon her."

The docks sure didn't seem very Blake-ful right now. What was the point in searching?

"A member of the White Fang, right underneath our noses!"

Ruby mumbled, "I just hope she's okay..."

"I wouldn't be too worried about murderers," the heiress retorted.

"You don't know that!" the blonde shouted. "She's been perfectly controlled, even _nice_ , the whole semester."

"It's just a mask."

Her teammates sighed and kept walking.

* * *

"So. You wanna know more about me."

Blake and Sun were sitting on an outside balcony of a small café near the ocean for afternoon refreshments.

" _Finally,_ she speaks! All morning you've given me nothing but small talk and weird looks."

 _So?_

"Yeah! Like that." Oops. Apparently her face had a mind of its own.

"Sun, are you familiar with the White Fang?"

"Of course! I don't think there's a faunus on the planet who hasn't heard of them. Stupid, holier-than-thou creeps that use force to get whatever they want. Bunch of freaks if you ask me."

Blake took a sip of her tea(2). _Even_ he _'s judgmental, and he's one of us._ "I was... once a member of the White Fang."

Sun slammed his cup of water back onto the table with his tail and spluttered. "Wai-*cough*-wait a minute. _You_ were a member of the White Fang? But you're..."

She didn't need any compliments or objections right now. "That's right," she said, then began her story. "I was a member for over half of my life, actually. It's almost like I was born into it.

"In those early years, things were a lot different. The White Fang was originally created after the Great War to be a symbol of peace and unity between the humans and the faunus, and it held to those standards for many years. Unfortunately, the good will mostly went one way. Despite gaining _'equality'_ on paper, you should know very well that we've still always been subject to every sort of discrimination."( 3)

Sun nodded in agreement with a morose expression.

"So the White Fang became more active, rising up as a voice of our people. It used to be looked upon favorably to join them, to push for our rights. I was involved; one of the most enthusiastic youngsters in recent years, always helping out at rallies and in boycotts. It felt like we were getting somewhere, and maybe we were. But it wasn't enough for some people. A few subdivisions started using violence in our name, and they did get results... so five years ago, a new leader took over. The 'renewed' administration changed all the rules and all policies, and we stepped out of the legal scene and into the shadows. We became the largest gang Remnant has ever known. We started by fighting back against any businesses that gave faunus unequal treatment: Robberies, vandalism, murder, you name it. But it actually worked. Small shops allowed faunus customers out of desperation, and many larger corporations relaxed some of their policies because of fear. Governments got rid of laws that directly supported segregation. Even many schools with tight enrollment restrictions started letting in some faunus. The sense of power fed our leaders, and they even began other crimes, completely unrelated to our social struggles. Some didn't want to wait for equality to trickle down the system; they wanted to go out and take wealth and power for themselves. Those crimes, too, continued our progress toward equality, but in the most perverse way possible. It wasn't a changed mentality or a genuine concern that caused these changes; it was simply fear. I know they aren't _all_ bad, but it's too many... So, a couple years ago, I couldn't handle associating with them anymore, and I planned my escape. I dreamed of being a huntress, someone who could make a real, honest difference in the world. Eventually, the time came and I left for Beacon, where I hoped my dreams could come true..."

She set down her empty tea cup and pushed the plate toward the side of the table.

"So..." said Sun, "is this why you're out here instead of at Beacon?"

"You could say that. My old team found out a little, and they didn't take it so well."

" _Old_ team? Are you serious? You can't just _leave_ , Blake. You'll get through this."

"I'm not so sure about that... Let's go."

* * *

"So, what's the plan now?" asked Sun.

"Well... I don't really have one. Maybe I'll try to be a freelance huntress..."

"I meant more like today."

 _Oh. Right._ Well, it was late afternoon, so there wasn't all that much to plan for anyway. "Well... What they said is kind of bothering me. I really don't think the White Fang is behind all the recent Dust robberies; what would they do with it? It sounds kind of stupid, but it would be reassuring if I could clear their name in my mind."

"I'm not so sure that you're right. They do attacks on corrupt companies and government buildings, so they must need ammunition and transportation, right?"

"More or less, but they've never needed _that_ much Dust before. They're making a nationwide impact on supply."

"But what if they did? What if they're going to something even bigger?" Sun speculated. _I don't even want to consider that-_ "The only way to prove that they didn't do it is to go to the place where they would most likely go to if they were to do it, but not find them there. Right?"

"But I have no idea where that would be. There are dozens of Dust shops in the city, so choosing one is like looking for a needle in a haystack. I don't think it's worth it."

" _Well_ ," said the blonde, "while I was on the ship," – Blake narrowed her eyes – "I heard some guys talking about offloading a _huge_ shipment of Dust coming in from Atlas."

"How big?"

" _Huge_. _Big_ Schnee Company freighter. That's as likely a target as any."

"Are you _sure?_ "

"Come on; let's go to the shipyard. I think they said it was pier fifty-two."

* * *

"BLAAAAAAAAAAAKE!" *Silence.* " _Bla-aaake!_ "

"Blaaaaaake, where are youuuuu?" *Silence.* "Blake!"

"Weiss, you're not helping!" complained Ruby.

"Oh, you know who _might_ be able to help?" she answered. "The police!"

"Ugh. Weiss..."

" _Just_ an idea."

"Yeah, a bad one."

"Weiss," Yang added, "I think we should hear her side of the story before we jump to any conclusions. You don't know what she meant."

"I think when we hear it, you'll realize _I_ was right."

"And I think Weiss's hair looks _wonderful_ today!"

"Aaaah, Penny!" shrieked Ruby. "Where did you come from?!"

"Hey, guys! What are _you_ up to?"

"We're looking for our friend, Blake," the brawler replied.

"Oh, you must mean the faunus girl from yesterday!" said Penny.

"Wait..." said Ruby. "How did _you_ know that?"

"Uh, the cat ears?"

"What cat ears?" asked Yang. "She wears a ...bow. … My Oum, how stupid can we be?"

 _...Okay. How did_ I _not see that earlier? It was always a little strange._

…

"She _does_ like fish days at the cafeteria," Ruby whispered.

"So where is she?" Penny asked.

"Uh, not here?" Weiss retorted.

"We don't know," contributed Ruby. "She's been missing since last night."

"*Gasp!* That's terrible! Well, don't you worry, Ruby, my friend! I won't rest until we find your teammate."

 _Um... Time to jump ship. Don't need any more psychos around._ It looked like Yang had the same idea; the two dashed off to a different street, leaving Ruby behind.

After turning a couple corners, the heiress entered a jewelry shop and started looking around.

"Uh, Weiss, what are you doing?" Yang asked.

"Making good use of a day in the city."

"Look, Weiss," said Yang, spinning Weiss around by the shoulders then shoving her into a chair. "I don't know what you're thinking, but Blake is our teammate; our _friend_. She's not _'a'_ faunus. She's an individual, not _'one of them'_. You need to judge people, not categories. Okay?"

"I don't see the-"

" _Weiss._ What has _Blake_ done wrong? We've known her for months, and what has she done?"

"The innocent never run."

"Answer the question, Weiss." The brawler's eyes began flickering red.

"She's always plotting-"

"You mean innocently reading in the corner. That's just her personality."

"And is always sneaking around-"

"Give me one good example. Faunus are often naturally quieter than humans."

"She sneaked off during the Oumsday parade!" Weiss announced triumphantly.

" _What?_ "

 _Yes. I'm right and now she realizes it. Just another little push..._ "When I finally got to the parade, it took so long because I found Blake first and followed her to some shady side street. She went into a book store and talked to some guy."

"Maybe he's a friend?"

"Oh, there's no doubt about that. But maybe he's not just a friend, but a _partner_ : a partner in crime. They were whispering to each other the whole time I was there."

"Weiss, you're trying too hard to accuse her. I'm sure it was nothing."

" _Nothing_ is not a secret."

"Well her _ears_ were a secret until just yesterday. I'm sure she just didn't want to cause... _this_. That's _all_. Did she pull any illegal transactions?" Yang didn't wait for an answer, and in fact she put a hand over Weiss's mouth to prevent one. "No. And did she go off and commit some crime after this _'mysterious conspiring'_? No. It's been two weeks, and I haven't _not_ known where she was for a moment of it. She sticks with us all the time. _And will continue to stick with us._ She _is_ our friend. I said before to wait for her side of the story, but it'll be too late. So _I'm_ going to bring you her side of the story. We don't know everything, but _I_ know _enough_. Think how hard it must have been for her to hide herself every single day, worrying that Cardin or _you_ would discover her secret and make her life _h*ll_. I mean, even _I_ probably would've thought of her a little differently, because I would've looked at her as not so much of a person, but more of a victim. Even now, I don't know if I'll be able to think of her the same. But I want to! I want for her to be Blake, not just _that faunus_. If we found out earlier, it would've completely changed the team dynamic. There's no room for three 'normal' people and one pitiful kicked puppy that has to be 'cared for' like an animal. Just _think_ , Weiss. Think if _you_ were a faunus and just wanted to be a normal person, with normal friends and normal activities. Think how hard it would be to try to fit in, desperately hoping that everyone would try to accept you for _who_ , not _what_ , you are. _Think about it._ "

"I-" Weiss started, but she immediately snapped her mouth shut. She shoved Yang away and walked out of the store.

Yang led Weiss around observing all the other pedestrians and looking in store windows to try to find their teammate. But now, Weiss guiltily glanced around as well. Every time it looked like Yang was about to turn to face her, though, she went back to stubbornly walking in a stiff line with her eyes straight ahead.

 _Maybe Yang is right._

 _Maybe she's not one of them._

 _Maybe she's her own individual._

 _Maybe I could give her a chance._

 _But if Yang is wrong, there will be_ no mercy _. But first we have to find her... Now, if I were a fugit- erm, if I were an abandoned faunus girl, where would I go?_

* * *

"Heheh, I knew I remembered that wrong. It was pier fifty- _five_ ; how could I have forgotten?"

"Sun. Are you _sure_ you know where you're going?"

"C'mon, it's your only chance."

Blake sighed and they continued south for a while longer.

"Yes! That's it!" the boy cheered. "See those warehouses?"

"Yeah... There are a lot of warehouses."

" _Those_ ones have a few Schnee containers sitting outside of them, but that leaves plenty of open space for more! I'm _sure_ it's here."

"Okay. Fine. We'll watch. ...But we'd better go on one of the roofs so nobody gets suspicious."

After only around ten minutes of waiting, Blake spotted a large cargo ship turning into the harbor. "That might be it."

"Might? That's _definitely_ it."

"Don't be too optimistic."

As the ship approached, the SDC logos painted all over the ship and its contents became clearly visible. It wasn't long before the freighter docked and a crane operator began unloading the containers.

"Hey, I've got an idea," said Sun. "You keep an eye out for the White Fang, and I'm going to go get something to eat. Maybe I'll bring something back for you."

"Sure." She rolled her eyes.

* * *

"Did I miss anything?" Sun asked.

"Not really," Blake answered. "They've offloaded all the crates from the boat, and now some of the workers are starting to leave."

"Cool," the blonde replied. "I stole you some food." He presented her one fairly regular-looking green apple and was holding two more red ones.

"Do you _always_ break the law without a second thought?" First, hitchhiking on a cargo ship, and now this.

"Hey, weren't you in a cult or something?" he wisely answered.

That earned him the death glare.

"Okay; too soon." _Yeah, you think?_ "Oh, hey. Look. The boat is leaving."

Sure enough, the Schnee ship was sailing away, but along the docks rather than into the ocean. It probably had to get its next load from another port.

"Well, now would be a fine time for theft since all the workers are gone," the girl commented.

Just to fulfill her last sentence, it seemed, a strong gust blew over Blake and Sun. But it wasn't just the wind: It was exhaust from a bullhead aircraft. The ship landed in an open spot among the shipping crates and its crew came out, wearing black clothes under white tops – and masks.

"Oh no..."

"Is that them?"

Blake looked forlornly down at the people from the aircraft. "Yes, it's them. You have eyes, right? That's their emblem."

"You really didn't think they were behind it, did you?"

"Well... no. Deep down, I knew, but I wished that I wasn't right..."

A loud voice interrupted the conversation. "Hey, what's the holdup?!" Yet another man exited the bullhead, but he wasn't wearing the White Fang uniform. He had black slacks and a black shirt with a white coat over top, but those weren't in the same style. He also lacked the hood and mask, and instead wore a bowler hat and carried a cane. "We're not exactly the most inconspicuous bunch of thieves at the moment, so why don't you animals try to pick up the pace?"

 _Animals. He's not a faunus..._ "This isn't right. The White Fang would never work with a human, especially one like that." _He has to be stopped._ Blake drew Gambol Shroud and jumped off of the warehouse, then wove her way in between Dust containers toward the thieves.

"No, you idiot! This isn't a leash!" said the orange-haired _human_. Whatever the grunt had said, it surely couldn't have warranted that kind of horrible comment...

Blake waited for the human to turn a little bit more and then she ran out behind him, holding him from behind with her weapon.

"What the-? Oh, for fu-"

"Nobody move!"

"Whoa, take it easy, there, little lady."

The White Fang members didn't obey her, and instead drew their weapons, although they hesitated a bit as they stared at her ears.

"Brothers of the White Fang, why are you _aiding_ this _scum_?"

The weapons were lowered slightly.

"Heh. _Oh_ , kid," her captive jeered. "Didn't you get the memo?"

"What are you _talking_ about?"

"The White Fang and I are going in on a joint business venture."

 _Oh, are they? That's too bad._ "Tell me what it is, or I'll put an end to your little operation."

The conversation was delayed slightly as two more bullhead aircraft arrived. "I wouldn't exactly call it a _little_ operation." _Darn it. What is this? Why would the White Fang work with a human?_

One moment, she was watching the sky, but the next moment she was laying on the concrete several meters away with her ears ringing. _Of course... I was too distracted._ As she began standing, the human shot at her once again with his cane, so she leaped out of the way.

The gunfire kept coming – but luckily not from the faunus, _yet_. She kept dodging around, eventually making her way behind a shipping crate.

"Here, kitty, kitty, kitty," cooed the human as he approached her hiding place.

But he was cut off by a battle cry that sounded like it came from Sun. _About time he joined in on the action._

This theory was confirmed when the newcomer spoke. "Leave her alone." Definitely Sun. _It's not like I asked to be left alone. I knew the risks when I attacked._

"You are _not_ the brightest banana in the bunch, are ya, kid?" the human said. _I don't understand how the White Fang could_ possibly _be okay with taking orders from such racist filth._

She heard sounds of combat from around the corner and decided to watch for a few seconds before jumping in. Sun apparently had a red staff, which he was currently using to block one of the grunts' thrusts. The monkey boy went down on a hand to reach forward with his foot, sweeping the same out from under his current opponent, and followed up with a downward arcing kick to the White Fang member's face. He then did a completely unnecessary backflip, with two entire turns, and landed on the grunt's back, driving him to the ground.

It looked like most of the grunts were unconscious or licking their wounds _(How are they_ that _bad? If I was still in the White Fang there's no way I'd let them out into the field.)_ and only the human was interested in fighting.

Break over. "He's mine!" Blake drew both halves of Gambol Shroud and leaped over Sun, running toward the enemy leader.

Her first swing, with the sheathe end, was easily blocked by the man's cane, but it only needed to be a distraction anyway. However, the counterattack came rather quickly, so Blake ended up ducking under the horizontal swipe. She followed up with an upward slash, but that was blocked as well.

She allowed the momentum to carry her into a spin, but a thrust from his cane came toward her chest as the turn was completed so she ended up blocking with the main blade. Now that the cane was hopefully deflected far enough to give her some time, Blake jumped as she hacked upward with the sheathe.

That turned out to be a mistake, as the human still managed to block the attack and then decided to swing his cane at her as she was in the air. There was no good way to control her trajectory naturally, so she used her Semblance to leave a clone in the air and instead propel herself forward. The cane passed just under her because of her fall's delay, and she successfully slashed the man across the right side as she passed by. There was a distinct lack of blood. _He has Aura?!_

Blake turned around and propelled herself forward again, slashing with the sheathe as she passed by him to the right. Her next slash, however, was blocked, as well as the jumping attack after that. As she came down from the last strike, the human swung his cane up at her, but it was easy enough to block with the main blade.

The crook decided to throw a punch at her _(What, does he think he's Yang? He doesn't even have gauntlets.)_ , which was easily avoided with a short clone jaunt. He followed up with a cane swipe, but it was once again a well-telegraphed attack that she had no problem avoiding.

Then Blake threw in a slash of her own. Apparently, she'd underestimated him; the human had decided to turn it up a few notches. He ducked the first slash, then blocked her second over his head. After the second block, the man hooked Gambol Shroud with the handle of his cane and pulled it to the side, following up with a jab to Blake's right side, a solid whack under her chin, and another strike to the left side of her neck. She staggered back a bit. _D*mn, it's been too long since I've fought anyone who really knows where to strike._

The criminal finished with a downward swipe, but even though she blocked the strike, she was still knocked to the ground because of her off-balance position. _Should've deflected it at more of an angle. But too late for that._ Before she had to worry about the next attack, though, Sun stepped into the fight, giving her time to sit up and get her bearings. Her Aura had taken a few hits, but still felt strong.

Sun had separated his staff into two nunchaku... or, they could be called "gun"chaku, as each handle doubled as a miniature shotgun. Their enemy had his hands full blocking all the twirling stick ends and bullets, and once Blake saw an opening, she took it. An inward slash with Gambol Shroud's main blade connected, launching the head honcho across the pavement.

He was down, but he wasn't out... Sun and Blake ran to catch up, but a bullet from the human's cane brought down a Dust container that was previously suspended by a crane. The two had to split off in different directions to avoid being crushed, and when Blake was safely out of the way, she found that Sun didn't have equal luck: He ended up directly in front of the crime lord, staring down the cane's barrel.

 _Way to go, Sun. Just... be a good distraction for a few seconds. This is salvageable._ She tensed her muscles to make a dash toward the foe, but a familiar voice interrupted all three combatants.

"Hey!" shouted Ruby from the top of a nearby warehouse. _Thank Monty._

"Oh, hello, Red!" replied the criminal. "But isn't it past your bedtime?" Well, it was indeed fairly late in the night by now, but Blake didn't have easy access to her Scroll at the moment to check the actual time. It probably wasn't their usual bedtime yet... But how could the human joke like that when he was being stared down by so many opponents?

Blake realized once again that she was being too distracted. The human man fired a round at Ruby, blasting her far back on the roof, and then he took the time to _laugh_.

Except he _could_ afford to waste the time. Most of the White Fang grunts were up and coming back for round two. Blake blocked one man's clumsy slash, and countered with a strike to his neck with the flat of her sheathe, knocking him out cold.

But any further fighting halted as everyone observed another newcomer: The weird Penny girl she'd met the other day. She gracefully leaped off of the warehouse roof Ruby was on with an _array_ of swords trailing behind her. _D*mn; she really_ IS _combat ready._

Penny easily incapacitated handfuls of White Fang grunts in one sweep of her blade _cloud_ , but things were getting worse: Three more White Fang bullheads arrived on the scene, attempting to pepper the orange-haired girl with their mounted Gatling guns.

To Blake's surprise, the girl had no trouble rotating a wall of swords in front of herself quickly enough to deflect every shot. The faunus girl had to run to keep her eyes on Penny, who retreated to one of the nearby buildings with the aid of some swords on retracting cables.

The orange-haired girl then twirled a circle of swords in front of herself, with the points forward, and formed a huge _laser beam_ in the center of them!? The attack instantly cleaved two of the bullheads in half. The passengers fell out, and would probably be lucky to survive the drop, while the aircraft pieces plunged into the ocean.

The third new bullhead was pulled to the ground with some more grapple-swords and ended up exploding against a pile of Dust containers. What was _up_ with that girl? She was so socially... _bad_ , but she had abilities that Blake had never seen before. Lasers? A cloud of swords? Grappling hooks? And it all seemed so _casual_ for the girl to use.

But once again, Blake was too distracted. The remaining White Fang grunts, as well as their human leader, hopped into the parked bullheads and flew away before Penny could get to them. _Oum. They got away. At least they didn't get what they came for..._

Sirens approached Dock 55. _Right. There will be questions..._

"Hey, Blake, are you okay?" called Ruby as she jumped down from the roof.

Blake walked over to some empty wooden crates laying next to the warehouse and sat down on one. "Sure." Penny and Sun soon joined them.

"Ooh, it's you!" greeted Ruby. "I never did catch your name."

"Sun Wukong. Nice to meet you. And you are...?"

"I'm Ruby! Blake's my teammate. And there's also Yang, my sister, and Wei-" she looked guiltily over at Blake, "Weiss..."

"Hello, Sun Wukong," interrupted Penny. "My name is Penny. It's a pleasure to meet you!"

"Yeah, you too, girly. You did some work there."

"It's a pleasure to meet you!"

"Penny, you're doing it again!" scolded Ruby. "You only have to say hi once!"

"Oh; that's right! Silly me!" _What_ IS _her problem?_

"Um, Blake?" Ruby said. "Do you have your bow with you? I mean, your ears are so cute and fluffy and I bet they feel amazing and- Oh, my point was, I texted Yang and Weiss as we were coming over, so..."

Blake's eyes widened. She reached into the pocket on the right side of her vest(4) and pulled out a crumpled ribbon. She turned away and tied it onto her ears, then turned back.

"Wow! You do that so fast!" Ruby exclaimed.

"Practice makes proficient..."

The sirens got even closer, and blue and red lights could be seen in gaps between buildings. "A police investigation!" said Ruby. "This is so cool! I've always wanted to help the police!"

"Maybe you should limit what _you_ say, Ruby," Blake suggested.

"Heh yeah, you never know what'll come out of this mouth of mine."

 _Ugh. Well at least she's being civil. Maybe the team didn't take it as hard as I expected._

"What'cha thinking about, Blake?" her leader asked.

She raised her head and smiled at Ruby. "I'm just glad that it's looking like I won't have to leave Beacon."

"Told you so," said Sun.

"Pff, what? Why would you have to leave Beacon?" added Ruby.

The first squad car pulled up alongside the warehouse. To Blake's disappointment, it was the two investigators from the other day...

"Ooh, it's those two again," Ruby put to words. "Maybe with all the information we can give them, they'll get a promotion and they won't have to complain about not getting paid enough!"

"Ruby. Quiet."

"Howdy there, kids. What brings you lot 'round here?" asked one officer.

"I believe one of my teammates called in," said Ruby. "They're not here yet, obviously."

"Well, do ya know ennythin' about what happened? The other asked.

Blake elbowed Ruby to get her to shut her mouth, and answered instead. "I was hanging out here this evening and decided to watch the Schnee ship offload its cargo. I'm always curious about those kinds of things."

"What-?" started Ruby, but she was cut off.

"Not now. Well, after they were done I was going to leave, but a bunch of White Fang thieves came along in bullheads and they were getting ready to carry off some of the Dust. Their leader wasn't one of them, though; he had orange hair and a bowler hat-"

"Like this?" asked the first detective. He had an image of the exact man pulled up on a Scroll, labeled 'Roman Torchwick'.

"That's definitely him. 'Roman Torchwick'."

"He's prolly been on th' news a lot lately," said the detective. "Th' guy's a wanted criminal, goes 'round stealin' thins left 'n right."

"I scared him off from a robbery once a couple months ago!" chirped Ruby.

"Int'restin'," said the second officer, who scribbled something down on a notepad.

At this point, several more police cars showed up on the scene, but the other officers realized that the witnesses were already occupied and instead surveyed the scene.

"Anyway, us four – Ruby and P-... Wait, where did she go? Well, Ruby arrived later on. Sun and I held them off for a while until-"

"Mm-hmm. Very int'r'sting."

"Would you _please_ stop cutting me off? So then Penny showed up. That girl blasted most of their bullheads out of the sky," – Blake had to put a hand over Ruby's mouth to prevent her from gushing about Penny's amazing skills – "and the rest of them flew off without any Dust. That's all the more there is to it."

"Thank you very much, ladies."

"Hey!"

"And gent. Didn't see you there. Yellow 'n hwhite 'r summutha best hidin' colors. Well anyway, you be havin' a great evenin'. Thanks for the cop-... cup-... cowp-... er, cooperation." The two investigators walked off to 'observe' some more of the scene... The chances of them actually accomplishing anything, though, were slim(5).

"Oh, hey! There's Weiss and Yang!" The pseudo-redhead stood up and confronted them before they arrived at the boxes. "Look Weiss it's not what you think she helped _stop_ the White Fang and she actually has ki-"

Yang 'politely' pushed Ruby to the side, allowing Weiss passage... to face Blake.

"Weiss, I'm sorry for running away like that. But I'm no longer a member of the White-"

"Stop. Do you have any idea how long we've been searching for you? Twelve hours(6). That means I've had twelve hours to think about this. In those twelve hours, well... with a little encouragement... I've decided that..."

Blake squeezed her eyes shut. There was no way this could end well...

"that I don't care. I'm willing to give you a chance."

She couldn't have heard that right. She peeked with one eye. "But why would you-"

"You said you're not one of them anymore."

Blake's eyes widened in shock. "No! I-I haven't been for quite a while now and-"

" _U_ p-up-up-up-up, I don't want want to hear it. Just, the next time there's anything like this that your team needs to know, promise that you'll come to us. And not some... someone else."(7)

"Of course. ...You're really willing to...?"

"Yes!" hissed Weiss. "Don't make me say it."

"You really are fine with... me?"

Weiss took a very deep breath in. "Yes. The faunus are not scum. Many of them are, but so are a lot of humans. My previous behavior is inexcusable, but if you'll try to forgive me, I'd be glad to try to know you as a person rather than 'one of them'."

 _Dust, it's a miracle! I thought there was no way she'd ever change... But she's really giving me a chance!_

"I'm still not quite sure how I feel about you-oof!" the heiress said, presumably to Sun. But Blake's eyes were closed, so she didn't have the true visual cues. "Don't- touch- me-!" the heiress squeaked.

Gah! Blake finally realized that she should probably open her eyes, and when she did, she found herself hugging Weiss. "S-sorry! I didn't mean to!" Her face felt like it was on fire. Touching Weiss was most certainly a bad idea. Just because she didn't hate her didn't mean she _liked_ her yet, either.

"Yeah! Team RWBY is back together!" the namesake cheered.

Weiss's scowl loosened into a pensive frown. "You know, maybe hugs are occasionally a good thing. Like at Oumsd-oof!" She was cut off by yet another hug, courtesy of Ruby. "But that doesn't mean I always like them! I'm simply not used to it."

"Sorry..." said the younger girl as she backed away.

"Oh, come here, Ruby. I think I'm ready. You can... uh..." The next word was hardly audible, even with Blake's extra ears. "Hug."

The girl in red latched onto the girl in white, but Yang decided to join in as well.

"Yang! I didn't say- oh, fine."

"Team RWBY official group hug!" gushed Ruby. "Don't be a sore thumb!"

Blake hesitantly reached out and joined her teammates. It was... nice. The team was back together, and, it seemed, closer than ever. Maybe a little too close. She stepped back, and the rest of the team soon followed suit.

"Man, that was something else!" the scythe user exclaimed. "We oughtta do this more often! Team RWBY Rule Number Four – man, it's been too long! – is that we hug every day! No resisting!"

Weiss was mortified. "Th-that might be a _li_ ttle too often, don't you think?" she gulped.

"Um, fine. Maybe we could go for every other day!" she suggested.

"Or maybe," said Yang, "we could just start with weekly and see where it goes from there."

Weiss seemed to relax a bit at that. "Fine."

 _They_ want _to hug_ me _? I... I..._ "Okay."

"Okay; it's unanimous! Haha – I remembered that one, Yang. Rule Number Four of Team RWBY is that we will have a group hug every week! ...Aw, that sounds a little underwhelming."

"Don't worry, Rubes," reassured Yang, placing a hand on her sister's head. "I'm sure you'll get over it."

Someone was whistling in the background...

Sun.

"Nice team you've got here," he said, causing Blake's face to heat up.

 _He's been here the whole time! This is_ not _something to listen in on._ "Maybe you should give us a little bit of time? You're not glued to my side."

The faunus boy chuckled nervously and rubbed his neck. "Uh, see you at school, I guess."

"That reminds me. What time _is_ it?" asked Ruby. " _We_ should probably get back to Beacon. I haven't started my essay for Dueling yet!"

" _Dust!_ Twenty-three o' clock!" the heiress exclaimed. "But," she lectured, "whose fault is that for not doing your homework?"

"U-um... It's actually sort of..."

Weiss's face grew even more pale than usual. "I'm sorry! We'd better get going..."

* * *

"Well..." said Ozpin as he walked into the room. "This has certainly been an eventful evening."

When the team arrived back at Beacon, the headmaster had been waiting for them at the front gate. Waiting for Blake, more specifically. She was led to a small chamber on one of the upper floors of the Tower(8).

"Hm?" Blake looked up from her spot in a chair.

"I'm sure that after a night of thwarting attempted robbery, you probably just want to go home and take a nap," the professor continued as he took a seat opposite her. " _But_ , I was hoping that maybe we could have a chance to talk."

"Of course." Blake's voice was a little less confident that usual, but the headmaster had that sort of effect on people. One could never tell what his goals were...

"Wonderful! As you know, in order to enroll at my Academy, students must first pass a rigorous entrance exam."

"I can tell where you're going with this. Did you change your mind?"

"No, no. Whilst preparation at a combat school is highly encouraged, transcripts are not the main factor for gaining entrance. You passed the exam with flying colors, and I would not pretend to deny that."

 _So I'm not being kicked out... Well of course not! There are other faunus at this school, too._ "I was raised outside the kingdoms. If you can't fight, you can't survive."

"Well, you have most certainly survived, Blake. I admire your drive, and I am proud to run a school that accepts individuals" – _Monty. He knows._ – "from _all_ walks of life. Rich, poor, human..." The professor took a swig of his coffee. "Faunus. Why do you wear that bow, Blake? Why hide who you are?"

"Professor, _you_ may be willing to accept the faunus, but your species is not." _Something I've had all too much experience with recently._

"True... But we _are_ continuing to take strides to lessen the divide."

 _Hardly._ "With all due respect, you need to start taking some _larger_ strides. Until then, I'd rather avoid any unnecessary attention. That's the only reason I was at that robbery in the first place."

"Oh? I take it Miss Schnee didn't take the news well?"

The girl glared at her elder. "I think it might work out."

"Ah, good," the professor lazily commented. "Although I was hoping it would take significantly less than a semester to work things out."

"...Are you saying you _knew_ when you approved the teams?"

"Oh, yes."

"Why? Why encourage all this extra hardship?"

"You should know very well that strength is gained through challenges. I must say once again: I _know_ your team is the most promising one I've had in years." Ozpin took another drink from his mug. "...And I had a vague hope that this would turn out to be one of those _strides_ we were discussing just a few moments ago." Blake was dumbfounded. "A Schnee, on top of the world in both fame and infamy, and a faunus girl with an all-too-militant past, plus two passionate, loving sisters to douse the flames... I couldn't have planned a better team even if I had _tried_ to override the Algorithm."

"I-I..."

…

"Is there anything else you'd like to address now, Miss Belladonna?" the man invited.

"N-no." _I want to trust him... but it's too soon._

The headmaster stood from his chair and turned toward the door. "If you ever need to talk to me... please, don't hesitate to ask."

The door clicked shut behind him, leaving Blake alone in the chamber. She sighed – a comfortable, relaxed sigh – and slowly made her way back to the dorms.

* * *

The door swung open to reveal two sleeping girls. Her teammates were sitting up in their beds, presumably to greet Blake when she returned, but didn't quite make it... It was heartwarming. But they had fallen prey to human need and succumbed to sleep. Ruby's right eyelid was just now fluttering shut. _Let them sleep. It's been quite a day. We'll all be here in the morning..._

Unlike her friends, Blake changed into pajamas and cleaned up before hopping in bed.

 _Thank Monty this all worked out._

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

(1) Yes, POV change. Sue me. There's just too much important stuff to cover for me to replace it with dialogue. Most things will be back in Weiss's point of view.

(2) tea: It's water in canon, but I feel it should be tea. I think it was just for the reflection of Blake's face at the end of her WF story.

(3) The WF story is a bit different. Mostly, it's to be more serious/dark (some more extreme things were probably avoided in canon because of the rating), less historic (most of the story sounds like it's for us, not Sun, to fill us in on history), and more personal.

(4) (a) Pockets! So hard to find them. It looks like there's a slight fabric crease slightly below her armpits on both sides of the vest, so I hope those are the pockets. If not, I have absolutely no idea where they would go. The magnetic backpack would fry her Scroll and probably wouldn't hold pencils or whatever else she'd want, and the leggings and vest really don't have many places for pockets...  
(b) The bow. I personally don't think she'd keep putting it on and taking it off throughout the two episodes – even during the _fight_ the animation shows her re-"growing" the bow. So I just have her leave it off during her time away... It's not like it would help anyone for her to wear it when she's walking around with a guy with a monkey tail, anyway.

(5) This is supposed to be closer to the south end of the business district, possibly into the industrial district, because that's where "bad cops" is labeled on Torchwick's map. They're not going to accomplish anything.

(6) Boom. The canon inspiration for the title.

(7) The cause-and-effect in the original version of this line is insanely screwy. Blake didn't run away in order to stop a White Fang robbery. She didn't know there was one until Sun mentioned it. And she didn't have time to warn her team since she was hoping for nothing to happen up until she had to start fighting. She ran away because Weiss is (was) racist and just learned that Blake is a faunus, or a member of the White Fang, or both.

(8) one of the upper floors of the Tower: Beacon Tower contains the Cross-Continental Transmit technology on its lower floors, and most certainly has Ozpin's clockwork office on the top floor. I added a hospital to the middle, and more floors for professors' offices and other administrators' things near the top.

Nooooooo. Stuffed animal abuse. (If you consider 'stuffed animal' to be a spoiler, boy are you dense. Every chapter. _Every_ chapter.)

Go, Yang, go! I'm glad I found something good for you to do.

Ozpin's speech does a fair job at setting the tone for the rest of the story... Other than the _direct_ conflict, I suppose. And the second genre.

My development of what I've felt for Sun as I watched the show for the first time was something like this: "Oh, look, some random law breaker to lend evidence to Weiss's argument. Oh, cool, he's traveling illegally when he probably doesn't need to. What the heck, he winked at Blake. I bet RT is going to try to pair them. That's complete rubbish to claim love at first sight or some crap like that. Hopefully there's a good basis; hopefully he's not scum but just needed a ride for some reason, and it'll be better later on. What the heck, stalker – followed them to the school? Oh, sure enough, he's still garbage – steals stuff. No, you are NOT the brightest banana in the bunch. Of course he can fight; why not? Of course the other people get there right after he comes in to 'save the day'. Blake didn't need any saving. Oh, he's actually a student!? That makes things ten times worse. They didn't explain why he came on a cargo ship and why he came without any teammates. Idiot, don't flirt with Blake; you're trash just like Weiss said. Just because you're a faunus and not in the White Fang and somewhat get along with the system doesn't mean you're a good person. Of course, it could've been Team JNPR who helped with the espionage mission, but _you_ had to be the one to barge in. What the heck, now you brought another useless creep to try to contaminate Weiss. Lol, you were so useless in the infiltration, and even ran away. Of course, _you_ end up being the person who 'gets' Blake now that Yang finally convinced her to go to the dance – not that she needs anyone! The rest of RWBY was fine with not dancing. Wow, some stupid gimmick Junior Detective mission thing; be proud of yourself. You're useless. Oh, sure, now Blake even likes his trash self during the tournament..."

 **Chapter Synopsis:** Twelve Hours! -Walking in Vale to see newcomers. -Robberies are in the news and in the streets. -Sun comes along. -They meet Penny. -Heated racism debate. -Blake runs away. -They look for Blake. -Some of them fight a Dust robbery. -There are sufficient quantities of words after the fact. -Ozpin's chat is moved to this chapter rather than being a flashback.

 **Changes Synopsis:** A lot of patches... Some of the original conversations are cringeworthy to me, especially considering that there should have been more mentions of racism and history in canon during the months of school. Some of the changes are because certain parts of conversations are clearly only there for exposition, while that doesn't need to be done in dialogue in a story. There are also some necessary changes so that the time scale makes sense – not to fit it to my ideals, but so that dialogue actually makes sense. I can't accept that Ruby and Sun were right was right when they said, ["She's been gone all weekend."] and, ["Nearly two days and you've given me nothing but small talk and weird looks."]. Weiss later said, ["Do you have any idea how long we've been searching for you? Twelve hours."]. I doubt both are right; that would mean that Team RWY sat around not caring, and not thinking about the situation or how to solve it, for one or two days, and that makes no sense to me. I deleted that implied extra day.

 **Unsigned reviews:**

Guest chapter 6 . Nov 18: [All I care about is you don't kill off Neo or the old man dust shop owner. He is vital to the story!]  
It's impossible to kill Shopkeep. He's omnipresent. You didn't do much convincing about Neo though. DX It doesn't count as your attempt.

 **Next update:** Probably quite a bit longer. I lied last chapter; this one was fairly easy to write. The next one is all original stuff, _and_ is a long time scale. _And_ it looks like I'll have significantly more real life to do during it. Definitely expect over a week. Just safely assume that it's not abandoned; I want to write the end too badly for that to happen. Result: 541 days. Ouch.


	8. Days: Two and Three

Chapter 8 – Days: Two and Three

 **Author's Note:**

Useless statistics: Chapter finished May 15, 2017. Published May 15, 2017. Total word count: 7494. Body word count: 6807 (91%). Writing Time: 13h29m. Chapter Rating: T

Written on Dec 8 2015, mostly. I'm impressed I ever wrote this well ^_^ This is a glorious piece of tension and detail. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up in the future chapters.

[Mega-chapter! ALL the days (other than the Hours one, of course).] Nooooope. Change of plans. That does NOT work. It would probably end up at 40k. Separating into reasonable chunks. Exam days will all be one chapter, this day is its own chapter, and I'll see how the 4-9 go. Maybe those are best left skipped unless I get a sudden spark of inspiration for plot-irrelevant parts.

* * *

Weiss's eyelids fluttered open. Soft morning sunlight streamed into Room 413 through the partially opened window, illuminating the beds and occupants with its warm embrace. It was a peaceful start to the day, a welcome contrast to the previous day's mood. The team was back together.

The heiress's eyes drifted over to the opposite side of the room. The girl around which all the recent issues revolved was comfortably curled up on top of her sheets – in the summer, it was almost too warm to use any covers whatsoever(1) – with a content smile on her face: a rare thing, indeed.

Next, the white-haired girl's eyes traveled upward. Yang lay on her bed, breathing gently. The light highlighted her blonde hair wonderfully, causing a halo-like effect around her head.

And Ruby... As Weiss shoved the reclaimed Mr. Fluffschnee under her pillow and shuffled about to get out of bed, the door clicked open. Ruby quietly entered, holding a massive tray of breakfast foods. The usually-boisterous team leader held a finger to her lips in a shushing position, and Weiss didn't need to be told twice. She slipped out of bed and whispered, "Good morning, Ruby."

"Morning, Weiss!" the girl softly chirped back. "I decided we'd have breakfast in bed today to celebrate our reunion! But we can wait for the others to awaken."

The heiress nodded, grabbed a fresh set of clothes, and headed into the bathroom to shower. Shampoo... conditioner... frost-scented body wash... towel...

As Weiss finished rinsing her hair for the second time, her calm morning thoughts were interrupted by a sudden thud against the floor in the room outside. "Morning, Rubes," said Yang.

"Shh! Morning, Yang," her sister responded. Whatever came next, probably an explanation of breakfast and Weiss's current location, was drowned out by the patter of water droplets from the shower head.

This morning felt so much like a dream. The slight tension among teammates present for most of the semester really seemed to be dissipating, and it was all because of honesty... Father always advocated doing what was best for the company, but now she doubted that any such materialistic goal was worth more than truth. Learning the truth about Blake left Weiss with the most wholesome feeling she had ever felt. To be able to understand was so liberating...

But it was quite probable that nobody had a complete understanding yet. The heiress hadn't told her friends much about her family and their history, at least not the truly important bits. Likewise, there was most certainly information that Blake, Yang, and Ruby were still withholding. But for now, the satisfaction from this step in the right direction was fueling Weiss's morning with an ethereal clarity.

 _Wait, is this a dream?_ A pinch revealed that no, this was almost certainly not a dream. So the white-haired girl continued her morning routine. As she cleaned her face, she felt something unfamiliar... a smile. She grumpily attempted to return her lips to their usual scowling position, but the stupid grin kept returning. Maybe just ignoring it would allow the issue to fix itself, so the heiress resolved to focus on her shower.

Once Weiss was fully clean, dry, clothed, and adorned, she stepped back into the bedroom. Yang was eating at her desk and Ruby was eating on Weiss's bed. For some reason the heiress felt no need to scold the younger girl, who shortly after spotted Weiss then nodded in apology and hopped off the bed. The red-tipped girl gestured toward the food tray on top of Weiss's desk. The heiress took the hint and also began eating. To her surprise, there were fluffy scrambled eggs and blueberry yogurt: Weiss's favorites other than cinnamon rolls.

After several bites, the three conscious teammates were alerted by the rustling of sheets from the occupied bed. Ruby giddily set her tray down and bounced over to Blake. "Good morning, Blake!" she greeted softly.

"It _is_ a good morning, isn't it?" the black-haired girl answered, stretching an arm across her body.

"Ruby brought breakfast," the blonde added. "How did you sleep?"

"Just fine; thank you." Blake retrieved some breakfast for herself and returned to her bed to eat.

"So," Weiss questioned in her best friendly tone, "what did Headmaster Ozpin wish to discuss?"

The faunus took another mouthful of toast to delay the answer, but only one – Weiss's raised eyebrow prevented any further diversions. "He wanted to know what happened and why we were involved," she casually answered. "Just a routine debriefing."

But the headmaster could surely acquire the police reports. ...Well, those were probably worse than any student's first-hand tale, but still: "I don't think that's all Ozpin wanted to say."

Blake mumbled a quick, "Sorry..." but did continue her story. "He's really proud of our team. He said we're the most promising group he's had in years... It sounds cheesy, but I almost believe him. And: He knows. He-he's glad that we're... willing to... go around, uh, previous obstacles," she finished skittishly.

Weiss narrowed her eyes. "You don't need to hedge the subject. I already said that I don't care that you're a faunus. That you ran away. That you were part of the White Fang, my family's most hated enemy."

Yang's breakfast sandwich paused just inside her open mouth.

"Th-thanks," said Blake. "I'm sorry-"

"You don't need to be sorry!" Weiss snapped, cutting off her teammate. "I'm doing my best to not judge, and you should do your best to set aside any past... mistakes."

The sandwich continued its journey to the center of the Yang.

"So what do you want to do today, Blake?" Ruby asked, returning the room to its previous serene atmosphere.

"Well," Yang interrupted, "we actually have semester exams coming up, so..."

Weiss's eyes felt like they were bulging out of their sockets. "You-"

"I might not like classes, but that's not because I'm stupid. *Cough.* Which I'm not. I see how it could be useful to... try to pass."

"This day is amazing," Weiss remarked under her breath.

Once everyone was ready for the day, Yang opened a World History textbook and the team got to work.

"'M bored," grunted Ruby.

Weiss had to agree. They had taken a lunch break, but aside from that, the team had been studying all morning and all afternoon. A brief glance at her Scroll revealed that it was already 18:30. "Maybe we could be done for the day," she suggested.

Ruby stared at her with quirked eyebrows.

"What? Did I grow a second head?"

"Maybe. _You_ just suggested to stop studying. _And_ Yang didn't make any inappropriate jokes."

"So, Weiss," the brawler started, "what did you have in mind, since it was your idea?"

Truthfully, the heiress was mostly just sick of studying history when she already knew the answer to the final exam. _Thirty-seven and thirty-two, respectively. Oobleck must be awful with socks._ However, it didn't take long for Weiss to figure out something she did want to do. But... _I can't just say, "Tell me all your secrets so I can understand you". That's childish._

"Weiss? Don't you have any ideas?" pestered Yang. "Don't tell me you were just bored. 'A Schnee is never bored,'" she said in a voice meant to mimic a poised aristocratic man. "...Or something like that. Sorry. That probably didn't make a lot of sense."

But she _was_ just bored. The team had infected her; made her _normal_. She didn't want to do just one thing all day... not that she particularly did at any point in her life. She was never quite like Father or Winter in that respect. Perhaps she was finally becoming able to resist her conditioning well enough to actually act like herself.

"Remnant to Weiss!" called Ruby.

Her eyes focused on her teammates once again as she formulated a response. "I suppose I wouldn't particularly mind simply... discussing the rest of the weekend."

"Great idea!" "O-okay." "Alright!"

"So..." stalled Yang as she returned the textbook to a shelf.

Ruby jumped up and clapped her hands together. "We're closer than ever, but there are still lots of simple things we don't know about each other! We're starting with icebreakers like on our first night together!"

Icebreakers. If that was supposed to be a joke about her, Weiss didn't appreciate it. And icebreakers always involved plenty of discomfort. "No thank you," she said, turning her head toward the wall between the bedroom and bathroom.

"Ha- _ha!_ That's my point exactly!" the team leader exclaimed, pointing a confident finger toward Weiss. "There's no way you'll even _consider_ sharing the _cool_ things"-Yang chuckled-"about yourself if you can't even do icebreakers!"

"Fine."

"Good pun, Rubes! What did you have in mind?"

"We're going to share the most embarrassing thing we brought to Beacon!" she said, standing on the windowsill and raising her left fist triumphantly.

"I'll go first," grinned Yang. "Here it is!"

The heiress didn't get it. Her blonde teammate was currently gesturing vaguely toward the back of the room. There were tons of things over there. Books, bookshelves, the TV, the Z-Station, the window, perhaps even the beds... "W-" Her question was cut off as Yang marched over to the window and hugged her sister.

"Ruby! You're so embarrassing, sis. You're, like, socially awkward to the ninetieth degree!"

"Ya-ang! Stoppit." The younger sister swatted feebly at her older sibling.

"That can't count," complained Blake. "Ruby is perfectly fine, and she brought her _self._ "

"Yeah! I'm not swoshely, er socially, awkward! Yeah!" The girl marched the few steps over to Yang's bed. "Besides," she said, climbing up, "there's _this!_ "

"N-no, Ruby, you don't know what you're doing! Stop! Get down!"

But Yang was no match for a speed Semblance. Ruby popped the thumbtacks off of Yang's Achieve Men poster, which was promptly thrown onto the bed. But she was left holding another piece of paper. The younger sister triumphantly held up the second poster, which was labeled 'The Rainbow Princess'.

The brawler made a quick recovery. Her blush disappeared and was replaced by cool confidence. "The Rainbow Princess is actually my favorite band. It's kind of embarrassing because they're, like, for little girls... but I only found out about them when I was fourteen. But shame no more!"

Yang's statement didn't stop Weiss from experiencing some serious second-hand shame. That was just... wrong! Immature. Even Ruby probably liked more reasonable music. Actually, that brought up a memory of Ruby's playlist, with 'Strawberry Strawberry Milkshake' at the top of the list... The heiress covered her face and planted herself in her bed.

But Yang continued digging her hole deeper. "Think what you want, but I lo-o-ove Rainbow. She's so hot, and cute, and just the right size, and her voice is like crystal chimes... There's nothing I don't like about her. Well... She's not a huntress and she's not mine, but..."

Weiss gagged on nothing. Her buxom blonde teammate was a dedicated flirt, but always went after boys. And now... this?

Ruby cleared her throat awkwardly. "U-um, I guess I'll go next." She zipped off to the bathroom and returned, displaying a ...toothbrush?!

"Ev-" the heiress's voice cracked from her previous condition, eliciting a snicker from Yang, so she restarted. "Everyone has a toothbrush."

"Hehehehehe... Uh..."

"Hey, that one is brown," noticed Yang. "I always have yellow and you always have red. Why do you have a... Why the _Dust_ did you take one of dad's toothbrushes?!"

"IlovemyfamilyanditwassohardtolosemomandIdidn'twanttolosedadeither" – the girl took a deep breath in – "andIknowwe'reonlyatBeaconit'snotlikehe'sgoneoranythingbutIknewIwouldreallyreallymisshimand" – another breath – "itjustremindsmeofhome! I'm sorry! I can't help it! I just had to bring something!"

Weiss's masterfully trained listening skills were easily able to keep up with Ruby's rant. "I wish _I_ had a reason to want to remember home," she pouted under her breath.

Yang was already digging through the bookshelf, and when Blake noticed, she tried to pull the girl away. "You don't know what you're doing," she warned fearfully.

"Aha!" exclaimed Yang, holding up a plain black hardcover book. It didn't look very significant, but Blake tried her best to reach for it. Yang used her superior experience in grappling to tie the black-haired girl in a metaphorical knot and sit on her in a matter of seconds, then revealed the spine of the book to Ruby and Weiss.

'Ninjas of Love'.

Some trashy romance novel? That really didn't seem to fit Blake, but she supposed people had all kinds of different tastes in books.

"That sounds really cool!" agreed Ruby. "I love ninjas and aliens and robots and all those things. I wanna read it!"

Yang gave a heart-stopping grin. "It's smut."

Father had never allowed her to be introduced to that particular genre, and a glance in Ruby's direction showed she was just as bemused.

The blonde sighed again. "Pornography in literature form. Naked people. Brainless sex. Bird, bees, and more bees. Do the do."

Oh. That was... quite the appalling taste in literature... and her face was likely aglow with embarrassment, so- _Focus the attention on someone else._ "I'm disappointed in you, Blake. I thought you were a more wholesome person than that."

Apparently, so did Blake. She popped out from under Yang with her shadow Semblance and ended up restraining the stronger girl with some ribbons from her wrists. "It is _not_ that kind of book. A friend introduced me to it. I doubt you've read past the first _chapter_ , Yang."

"Yeah, I read part of a chapter."

"Only the first chapter is like that," the faunus lectured. "To draw in readers, probably. The rest of it is a real love story. And it's not only romance, either... A small group of ninjas feels guilty about assassinations and other crimes they'd committed, and they vow to help people for the rest of their lives. They go around helping the poor to the best of their abilities, and they use their ninja skills to discover and foil murder attempts and save lives. It's an incredibly good book."

The rest of the team turned into gaping fishes. That just didn't make any sense. Yang's brain was filthier than a sewer, yet Weiss suspected she was more correct than was Blake in this case.

"Want me to read part of chapter three?"

"N-no, that's alright," sighed Yang. "I didn't know." She was promptly released.

"Now Weiss is the only one left..." said Blake, sheepishly staring at the floor. Hiding her expression.

"And what makes any of you think I've ever possessed something less than publicly displayable?" the heiress huffed.

Crossing her arms and upturning her nose with closed eyes turned out to be a mistake. By the time she heard sheets rustling and her eyes shot open, it was too late to stop Yang.

"Isn't it _cuuuuute?_ " the brawler cooed(2).

Mr. Fluffschnee. _S**t- Oum- D*mn- Dust- Monty-_ "W-what's- do you- have th-there? Wh-where did you find th-that _thing_ to f-frame me?"

The blonde grinned and said, "Second week of school. I was checking if anyone's mattress was better than mine. *Cough* I may have traded mattresses with Blake *cough*."

However, Blake didn't object. She and Ruby were staring at Mr. Fluffschnee, the latter with a twinkle of her eyes that said it's-so-cute-let-me-have-it and the former with a glassy, unfocused gaze.

Weiss supposed Mr. Fluffschnee was rather cute, and although it was a childish motive, that was her second-biggest reason for keeping him. He was a white stuffed animal cat with gray on his paws and the tip of his tail. He had 3mm-long fake fur, long enough to be fuzzy, though it was matted in some places from years of handling. The face held two button eyes: The right was blue, while the left was yellow(3).

"Tell us about her! Tell us about her!" chanted Ruby.

There really wasn't any way out of this. He was obviously Weiss's and he was obviously not a new resident of the team's room. There were no credible excuses, so the white-haired girl took the cat from Yang – who let go easily enough – and sat on her bed. Her tongue tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth as she struggled to begin. "First off, Ruby, it's _he._ His name is Mr. Fluffschnee." Yang snorted, but was polite enough to cut off her display of amusement at that. "I... wanted to keep him hidden. It's... like Yang said. It's quite embarrassing to have a child's toy..."

"You're never too old to be a kid, my Uncle Qrow always says! I support!"

"Thanks, Ruby," Weiss smiled. "But he isn't just a toy, either. He was an important part of my childhood. In a life dominated by formal conversations and arduous lessons, and with hardly any real care from my family, he was an amazing source and recipient of love."

"Like my cape!" interjected Ruby. "Except my family is nice, too... Sorry; bad interruption."

Sigh. "I _found_ him in an alley when I was seven. I was on a business trip with Father and a few servants in Vale, and Wilhelm, one of the servants, was taking me back from a quick shopping trip when I spotted the little guy." Weiss figured it was a good time to pet Mr. Fluffschnee to comfort him from the painful memory. "He was in a sandy puddle next to a storm drain just off the main road. I just couldn't bring myself to leave him abandoned like that, so I picked him up and hid him among some of the clothes.

"Wilhelm was a good man. I told him that I wanted to 'take care of the helpless kitty', and he understood. He oversaw the transportation of my new clothes back to Atlas and slipped Mr. Fluffschnee under my bed. The night we returned, he got me out of bed and we cleaned him in one of the bathrooms."

Weiss's expression soured. "But perhaps he was too kind. Father was suspicious of Wilhelm's behavior during the trip to Vale, and when the new clothes had to be cleaned more than normal because of the mud, that was the last straw. Wilhelm refused to answer Father's questions properly, so he was fired."

"But that's not fair!" the team leader objected. "Your dad can't do that!"

The heiress's mouth curled into a melancholy smirk. "Yes, he can, Ruby. It's hardly the only time he's done something of that sort. He suspended Klein for a few days when I was eight... But the thing is, even if he lost so much, Wilhelm let me have Mr. Fluffschnee, and I'll always be thankful for that.

"The little guy was cleaned up, but his right eye was barely hanging on by a thread, so the next night, I sneaked out of my room to the laundry chambers, where the servants clean and mend clothes. Well, only for small fixes, naturally. It's not like we can't just get new clothes. Anyway, I got a new button and a needle and thread, and Mr. Fluffschnee got his new eye. It wasn't the same color, but I don't think Father ever allowed anything but white, blue, or red in our home. And maybe some grays. By the way, white and blue are family colors, and red is a universal symbol of power, which is why you see those colors with anything Schnee...

"Sorry; back on topic. So I kept Mr. Fluffschnee hidden in my room and played with him every night when I was supposed to go to bed. Naturally, I had to learn the linen-changing schedule so the servants wouldn't find him, but it was simple to remember after a couple of weeks. I took care of Mr. Fluffschnee, and he showed me what it's like to really care for someone... something I've never particularly had until I left for Beacon."

"Wow..." said Ruby.

"I never knew..." Yang added, somewhat more cohesively. "I shouldn't have judged."

Blake was still just staring at Mr. Fluffschnee as if the rest of the universe had disappeared.

"Uh, Blake?" asked Weiss. The other girl still gave no sign of life, so the heiress slipped Mr. Fluffschnee back under her sheets and got up to check on her. However, the cat's disappearance brought the faunus out of her trance. "Blake? Are you sick or something?"

"N-no. I'm fine. Perfectly fine."

"Yeah, right," accused Yang. "You were a zombie just a few seconds ago. Are you sick? Or just jealous of Weiss's cat like Ruby is?"

"Hey! I'm not jealous! I just... want one!" Ruby objected.

"I... had a cat a lot like that as a little girl."

"Don't tell me...-"

"I was young, so the best name my pitiful creativity could come up with for a name for him was Kitty. I lost him when the ...White Fang transferred me to Vale. I lived in a little village on Menagerie, and a human caught my dad stealing. It was just food; we _needed_ it. But it didn't matter. They were used an example to show the supposed 'rightful place' of humans and faunus. They were... beaten... to death... with clubs... in the center of the village( 4)."

Nobody had any words at the moment except for Blake.

"It was Adam, my ...mentor. He told me that there was a place for me. I was taken away from the village and into a secret base in the wilderness. Adam said not to bring anything, but the cat was all I had. So I didn't listen. I became a member of the White Fang and they trained me, then transferred a battalion to Vale. I was among them. I naturally took the cat with me, as my first real possession and memento of my childhood. But when we arrived inside the city, Kitty fell out of my backpack... Adam yelled at me and threw it out. I complained, but he called me a child and dragged me to the small house where we stayed at first. It was owned by one of the White Fang members, back when we were actual members of society, and – *Sigh.* You don't need to hear everything we did. But... I never found my Kitty..."

…

"He had yellow eyes."

…

This day once again felt like a dream to Weiss. Her body went on autopilot as it retrieved Mr. Fluffschnee from the bed, stood up, robotically walked across the room, and gently set the cat on Blake's lap.

"He had yellow eyes," she whispered to her faunus teammate.

"I know," was the reply. Blake began petting the stuffed animal and Weiss slowly returned to her bed with jerky, robotic footsteps.

"Ahem," Yang cleared her throat. "I think that maybe some supper wouldn't be a terrible idea."

* * *

Weiss's eyelids fluttered open. Soft morning sunlight streamed into Room 413 through the partially opened window, illuminating the beds and occupants with its warm embrace. It was a peaceful start to the day, a welcome contrast to the mood two days ago. The team was back together.

The heiress's eyes drifted over to the opposite side of the room. The girl around which all the recent issues revolved was comfortably curled up on top of her sheets – wait. No. She wasn't. Weiss's morning-addled brain cleaned out _yesterday's_ sensory input and made out the real details of the morning:

It was Monday. A school day. It was sunny, but Weiss couldn't see the sun or the rest of the room; there was an obstruction.

Right in front of her face.

A frizzy, black obstruction.

An obstruction that had a name and was occupying the heiress's bed.

Weiss's heart rate was probably close to 200(5). Her first instinct was to scream until everything within a five kilometer radius ran away, but she restrained the urge; that would only make things worse. Instead, the heiress lifted her arms- nope. Those were pinned down.

"Blake!" she aggressively whispered.

The girl continued sleeping, and rubbed her face on Mr. Fluffschnee.

"Blake!" she tried a little louder.

Now the faunus's eyes crept open and wandered confusedly across Weiss's face. "Why are you-" Blake's eyes focused and her face turned into a tomato. The girl fell out of the bed with a thump and tossed Mr. Fluffschnee at Weiss, then scrambled into the bathroom and slammed the door.

"But my alarm din' even go off yet iss not time fer school I don' wanna get outta bed..." Another thump revealed a smiling Ruby with her hands on her hips. "Good morning, Team RWBY! Let's get ready for _school!_ "

As Weiss sat up and stretched a bit – and tried to forget earlier bits of the morning – Ruby strolled over to her dresser, grabbed a pile of clothes, and opened the door to the bathroom... then shut the door and continued past the it without breaking stride, although she had gained a heavy blush. "But Blake never showers first," she mumbled in a shocked tone.

"I-I guess she woke up early today?" stuttered Weiss.

"Y-yeah. Probably."

The water turned on in the adjacent room.

"So, want to get breakfast?" suggested Ruby.

"S-sure."

* * *

While Weiss and Ruby were heading back to the room after finishing breakfast, the two passed Blake, who walked quicker than normal and turned her head away from her teammates. The two arrived at the dorm room and found Yang still asleep – a problem which was quickly rectified by the team leader.

" _Why_ in _Monty's_ name did dad ever let his toe-pinching habit rub off on you?!" The girl's eyes were somewhat redder than normal.

"Maybe I'm just a good learner, _Yang._ It sure is useful when teammates want to sleep all day."

"Can't help it that I need my beauty sleep to preserve _this._ " The blonde gestured to herself. Ruby rolled her eyes, gathered some clothes, and hopped in the shower, so Yang left for breakfast.

Weiss decided to look over her Grimm Studies notes while waiting for the rest of the team. Usually there wasn't enough time in the morning for anything like that, but certain circumstances made this anything but a usual morning.

* * *

"I think a goliath would make an _amazing_ steed!" gushed Nora as the teams made their way to the World History classroom.

" _Nora,_ " scolded Ren. "You can't ride a goliath. It would kill you."

"His name would be Geeowrge! And I would steer him using some 'persuasion' from Magnhild. Ooh, he would be so obedient and _cute._ "

"Not as cute as Mr. Fluffschnee!" Ruby blurted.

"Quiet, _dunce!_ "

"Ehehehe... oops. I'm sorry Weiss. I know you wanted to keep it a secret."

"Mr. Funny?" asked a perplexed Jaune. "Is that a new student? He must be older than the rest of us..."

"Nobody," the heiress snapped, jabbing an offensive finger at the boy's sternum.

"It's her stuffed" – Weiss turned to chase down Yang, but the girl wove through the rest of the group long enough for her to continue talking – "cat that she sleeps with every night like she's a two year old."

"Yaaang." "Yang, you _will die._ You're lucky I don't have your Semblance." "My Oum..." "That's adorable!" "Magnhild makes a great bed-mate too." "Oh, you mean like Gladius, my lion?"

"Oh, look, it's the classroom," said Yang as she ran off ahead. That was one of the first times Weiss had ever seen the girl so interested in getting to lecture. The tension dissipated as the teams filed into their usual seats – except Yang, who sat in a back corner.

"Gooooooood morningmystudents. Today wewillbe continuing ourdiscussionofthe ancient world."

Weiss flipped to a new page in her notebook and began writing.

"Now, todaywillgo even farther back thanourprevioussession. Nobody actuallyknowsanythingthathappened that longago, so I'm not completelysure why this lecture isevenworthwhile. Nevertheless, Ishalluse my vividimagination andthe few unreliable fables passeddown throughtheages."

For some reason, the heiress was actually interested in listening for once. Something about this speculation and uncertainty was alluring.

"Whilst all sources agree thatlongago humansandfaunus were born from Dust, there are a couple sources that point even farther back. Itissaid thatlong, long ago, people roamed theplanet quite peacefully. It was autopia,onecouldsay. Nobody needed anything butthe bare minimums: food, water, a place to rest at night. Peoplewere simple back then; simple, buthappy. Therewasno war, therewasno conflict, therewasno greed, therewereno Grimm. But there _were_ Grimm; they just hadn't found us yet.

"We were asleep, sotospeak. Everything was whatwewould today call a dream. The humans andthefaunus were suddenly broughtoutof this dream into full knowledge ofthe harsh reality oftheworld. Beforeweknewit, the moon shattered – mind, thisisonly a fable; nobodyknows whether itwas _ever_ actually whole – and around the same time, Grimm found us and became a part of everydaylife.

"Forthe first time, people hadto worry about theirsafety. The early days, weeks, and months were slaughter, but ever so slowly people beganto use sticks and stones asthe first weapons. Fighting... ...becameathing. All these primitiveweapons did was prolong theirdemise – but thatwasenough. Dust had existed for aslongasanyoneknew, anditwas praised as asymbol of life, treated as an idol, although thereisno proof that Dust canactuallycreatelife. After some duration offighting theGrimm, someone or someones took Dust out of a shrine and brought it into battle. Isuspect it exploded byaccident, but somebody else saw andthusdiscovered its functions as a magical weapon."

That was the mysterious founder of what eventually became the Schnee Dust Company – at least, if the family story was true.

"Wewere finally able tofighttheGrimm on equal ground. Mankind becameinterested in buildings, walls, towns, weapons; materials ingeneral. Eventually we had safe havens all over muchoftheworld. These sanctuaries were still not enough, and collapsed into the kingdoms. Why, even the ruins in the Emerald Forest are an example of mankind's coalescence. Civilization developed, and with it all the good andthebad aspects ofhuman* _ahem_ *orfaunusinteraction." (6)

* * *

Yang had grown bored of studying, and Ruby's solution to that problem was to invite JNPR to play _hide and seek_ in one of the gardens.

 _Juvenile._

Thus Weiss was left alone in the dorm with not much to do. She decided to look at some details about the Vytal Festival; after all, a Schnee is always prepared, so she should most certainly plan some activities.

Stationed just outside of Beacon to the west would be a large fairground with booths for food, music, games, and specialty products. Scrolling down the list, the heiress found one stand was reserved by _Solstice Co. Specialty Dusts._ While the SDC was the best, it was quite possible that some other company had made some interesting discoveries as well( 7); that would be worth checking out. There were also a few restaurants that stood out to her: _A Simple Wok_ , which claimed to have the best noodles in Vale; _Hot ChupacaBro's_ , which would sate her somewhat recently acquired taste for spicy foods; _Mistralian Krill Grill_ , which claimed to have the world's best seafood; and _Chillden Creamery_ , a shop based in an old village outside of Atlas that made quality milk, butter (and bread to accompany it for sampling), and most importantly, ice cream. The Schnee estate had a contract with the little shop for nearly all their dairy needs, but after three hand a half months away from home, Weiss was feeling deprived.

The white-haired girl made a new note in her Scroll about these booths then gently tossed the device onto her desk. It slid a few centimeters. Her neck was feeling particularly itchy today... And the itch was moving...? _Please not..._ A hand was slowly elevated toward the back of her neck, but before it reached the skin it brushed against something thin and movable a few millimeters high.

The thing – _Please not a spider!_ – scurried down her neck and attempted to go down the neck of her bolero. That was _not_ going to happen. The heiress flicked the creature off of her neck, and the spider – she could see that it most certainly was a spider – landed on the floor, dazed.

She hyperventilated. That _thing_ had been in contact with her _skin._ That- that _spider._ She hated spiders. Oh, there were the good tales, of course, that described the eight-stilted crunchy vampires as heroic bug-gobblers, but those were just stories. Not once had Weiss ever seen a spider eat an insect. Not once. ...Not that she particularly tried to watch spiders, and not that she ever came across many because of all the housekeepers at the Schnee mansion, but still, her experience had to be worth something, right?

Well, no matter whether or not they were of any use, they were vile monsters. The arachnids were practically aliens with all the extra eyes and limbs, and worse than their appearance was their behavior. Not once had she ever met someone who claimed to _like_ walking into webs or having a tickly beast walk all over them... not that she ever talked about spiders with anyone. But she was most certainly one of the haters, and one of those objects of her hate was present... and starting to move once more.

"Eeeeeeeeeeep!"

Unfortunately, her verbal assault didn't faze her tormentor, and the enemy aimed its sights toward _her_ bed. Mr. Fluffschnee was in there! Weiss skittishly hopped and danced around on the floor in her attempt to both get to her bed and not put her feet anywhere that _thing_ may have been. Her heart hammered in her chest as she yanked the sheets back and extracted her cat from its safe place.

But now what? The girl panicked as she swept the room with her eyes, looking for any way she could possibly save herself. There was nothing. No options. She was _doomed._ There was no way the foe would have mercy, and it was most assuredly far too cunning to let her get near any of the doors or windows without cutting her off... – She gulped in an attempt to assuage the sudden tightness in her throat. – _...And_ cutting her (neck) off.

Her only option was to try to outrun it. Even if she couldn't get to an exit, she hoped she'd be able to buy enough time so that one of her teammates would return.

Solid plan.

All that was left was to enact it.

Weiss shrieked once more as she shakily dashed across the room – the long way, of course – and climbed onto Yang's bed. So far, so good. She had even managed to trick her nemesis into thinking she was still next to her own bed.

But that soon changed. Charlotte – she figured that was an appropriate name; that was the spider in a certain book she read as a child that gave her nightmares – turned around and scurried toward Blake's and Yang's beds.

Maybe... maybe it was _practicing_ its running between the beds so that it could get even faster. Yes. It was training. Training to defeat her. Hopefully that meant that Charlotte would be too enraptured in its activity to notice her if she ran for the door, since that wasn't on its race course. Hopefully.

The heiress leaped off of the bunk with a guttural war cry, squeezed her eyes shut, and ran until she met the door with her extended forearms. That hurt a little, but the mild pain would go away. Now... did her plan work?

She turned around to observe her opponent, and to her great glee, Charlotte was still scampering toward Blake's bed. Weiss sighed and leaned her head back against the door, feeling her heart beat within her chest. Mr. Fluffschnee was also trembling in terror, so she softly petted him to calm him down. She had done it. _They_ had done it. For now.

Charlotte arrived at its destination and turned around to walk back to Weiss's bed.

And then, roughly ten seconds later, it arrived at that destination and turned once more – but this time, toward the door.

This was it. She was finally going to die. Four years of freedom was just too much to ask for. She made herself as flat as possible against the door to prolong her doom.

The door's latch clicked behind her and the piece of wood shook.

"Is the door blocked?"

"Help me!" begged Weiss.

"You have to let me in..." grumbled Blake.

"But if I move, it'll get me!"

"What are you _talking_ about, Weiss? Just get out of the way."

The heiress took a trembling step to the side, admitting Blake to the room(8).

"What's wrong with you?" the faunus demanded, closing the door behind her. " _A Schnee is always calm and collected,_ " she mockingly added.

Weiss pointed toward the floor and Blake's eyes followed the gesture until they arrived at Charlotte.

"Ha, ha," she dryly chuckled. "It's _just_ a s-spider. N- _nothing_ unusual about that."

"Save me!" the heiress begged, clutching at Blake's scarf.

"N-no; I think you can save yourself." Blake's voice had grown thin.

"K-kill it!"

"Wh-why don't you?"

Weiss's eyes morosely turned toward the ground – but didn't end up looking at the ground. She turned her head to the side instead. "It's too embarrassing."

"What, you're afraid of s-spiders?" her teammate unsuccessfully taunted.

"D-don't tell anyone..."

"I-I won't, but that is funny. _I_ 'm d-definitely not scared of them. Hey, where did it go?!"

Weiss hyperventilated as she scanned the room for her foe. Was it... was it already here?

Nope. The mutant was climbing up the books to Yang's bed.

Yang. Maybe she would be able to help.

The door opened once again to reveal a long, yellow curtain of hair, and thus giving Weiss the opportunity to find out if her theory was correct. The brawler spotted the bug as soon as the door shut behind her. " _Oh my Dust!_ A spider! Screw this; we need Ruby( 9)."

"S-seriously?" s-stuttered Weiss. "Big tough Yang c-can't kill a measly s-spider?"

"Shut up, Weiss! Just get in the corner! We have to hide until Ruby gets here. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee–"

* * *

The shuddering, weeping pile of yellow, black, and white girls (and stuffed cat) raised its six eyes in the direction of the clicking sound and called out in a collective voice, "Ru-hu-hub-by-y-y!"

"Hi, guys! What's up? Why are you all in the corner?" She was _far_ too cheerful for this dire situation.

One left and two right index fingers pointed toward the rug in the center of the room, where Charlotte was currently sizing up its prey.

"A little spider? Ha." In a brilliant display of her dominance over both the bug and the rest of the team, the young leader casually skipped over to the rug and smugly lowered her right booted foot onto the spider.

"Yeeeeeeessss!" "Saved!" "Great work Rubes!"

The pseudo-redhead then took off her boot and peeled Charlotte's remains off of it, causing the other three girls to look away. "Hmm. It has- er, had, red eyes and a little white breastplate. Looks like this was a _Grimm_ spider."

"You're not making things any better, Ruby!" the older sister shouted.

"Fine, fine. I'll go flush it now."

The rest of the day was consumed by a lecture about spiders not actually being scary – which Weiss completely disregarded – then supper and some light studying. That night, Weiss stuck close to the center of her bed to be safe from spiders, and she held Mr. Fluffschnee as close as she could.

* * *

Author's Notes:

(1) Also, Ruby is shown sleeping on top of her bed rather than in it on the morning of the search. With the revelation that Semester 2 includes fall, this made sense and inspired this comment in the story...

(2) The moment of truth. And you're welcome for wasting footnote space...

(3) The right was blue, while the left was yellow: Look up early concept art for RWBY...

(4) The Volume 4 opening song shows Blake's parents, and many episodes include them as well. Although I wrote that part of the chapter a year before Volume 4 started, it works perfectly fine for me to keep it this way. They aren't dead. She just remembers wrong, and I'll leave it at that.

(5) That is my fable for the world. I'm fairly confident that RoosterTeeth won't do the exact same thing, so this will just have to be a point of divergence.

(6) 200: (Beats per minute.) Healthy mice have a _resting_ heart rate of about 500. Oh, that's not what you asked? Humans usually have a resting heart rate around 60, and a maximum heart rate around 200, although that decreases with age.

(7) Yes, this is essentially corporate espionage, other than that it will be released products and that Weiss is looking for information for her personal use.

(8) The dorm rooms' doors open inward.

(9) "we need Ruby.": I couldn't help adding Yang to the list...

 **Chapter Synopsis:** Twelve Days! Mr. Fluffschnee; discussing past experiences; fluff; education  & not-exams-yet. (Those go in a chapter soon after this one.)

 **Changes Synopsis:** We can has aftermathematics rather than just skipping to the next semester. All original.

 **Unsigned Reviews:**

Guest chapter 7 . Oct 12: [I really like this story, I have to say, monochrome is great, but not very popular for some reason, either way, keep it up, I am really looking forward to the rest of the story, I'm not the same guy who did the review about the shop keep and neo in the previous chapters, however, I agree that Neo should not be killed off, because of how much I like her, and because of how much potential there is, think about it, when you read about a fanfiction with neo in it, she is always different from the one before, because she has no real back story, all we know is that she's a short, cute, mute girl that can kick ass, you could make it so that she had no other choice to join Roman and the white fang, and she could escape, and you could throw in the baked Alaska ship. Just an idea.]

Thank you for the review. Yeah, after a year away, I do have ideas for Neo. It might not turn out how everyone expects, but I do have plans.

 **Next update:** I'm just getting started again, so I'm not sure. As a rough guess, I have more to do than during my previous period of writing, so chapters will take longer. I might get some out in just a handful of days, when things are going well, and other times it might be more than two weeks. Result: XX days.


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